#FactCheck: Old clip of Greenland tsunami depicts as tsunami in Japan

Introduction

A bill requiring social media companies, providers of encrypted communications, and other online services to report drug activity on their platforms to the U.S. The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) advanced to the Senate floor, alarming privacy advocates who claim the legislation transforms businesses into de facto drug enforcement agents and exposes many of them to liability for providing end-to-end encryption.

‍Why is there a requirement for online companies to report drug activity?

The reason behind the bill is that there was a Kansas teenager died after unknowingly taking a fentanyl-laced pill he purchased on Snapchat. The bill requires social media companies and other web communication providers to provide the DEA with users’ names and other information when the companies have “actual knowledge” that illicit drugs are being distributed on their platforms.

There is an urgent need to look into this matter as platforms like Snapchat and Instagram are the constant applications that netizens use. If these kinds of apps promote the selling of drugs, then it will result in major drug-selling vehicles and become drug-selling platforms.

Threat to end to end encryption

End-to-end encryption has long been criticised by law enforcement for creating a “lawless space” that criminals, terrorists, and other bad actors can exploit for their illicit purposes. End- to end encryption is important for privacy, but it has been criticised as criminals also use it for bad purposes that result in cyber fraud and cybercrimes.

Cases of drug peddling on social media platforms  

It is very easy to get drugs on social media, just like calling an Uber. It is that simple to get the drugs. The survey discovered that access to illegal drugs is “staggering” on social media applications, which has contributed to the rising number of fentanyl overdoses, which has resulted in suicide, gun violence, and accidents.

According to another survey, drug dealers use slang, emoticons, QR codes, and disappearing messages to reach customers while avoiding content monitoring measures on social networking platforms. Drug dealers are frequently active on numerous social media platforms, advertising their products on Instagram while providing their WhatApps or Snapchat names for queries, making it difficult for law officials to crack down on the transactions.

There is a need for social media platforms to report these kinds of drug-selling activity on specific platforms to the Drug enforcement administration. The bill requires online companies to report drug cases going on websites, such as the above-mentioned Snapchat case. There are so many other cases where drug dealers sell the drug through Instagram, Snapchat etc. Usually, if Instagram blocks one account, they create another account for the drug selling. Just by only blocking the account does not help to stop drug trafficking on social media platforms.

Will this put the privacy of users at risk?

It is important to report the cybercrime activities of selling drugs on social media platforms. The companies will only detect the activity regarding the drugs which are being sold through social media platforms which are able to detect bad actors and cyber criminals. The detection will be on the particular activities on the applications where it is happening because the social media platforms lack regulations to govern them, and their convenience becomes the major vehicle for the drugs sale.

Conclusion

Social media companies are required to report these kinds of activities happening on their platforms immediately to the Drugs enforcement Administration so that the DEA will take the required steps instead of just blocking the account. Because just blocking does not stop these drug markets from happening online. There must be proper reporting for that. And there is a need for social media regulations. Social media platforms mostly influence people.

Introduction 

Prebunking is a technique that shifts the focus from directly challenging falsehoods or telling people what they need to believe to understanding how people are manipulated and misled online to begin with. It is a growing field of research that aims to help people resist persuasion by misinformation. Prebunking, or "attitudinal inoculation," is a way to teach people to spot and resist manipulative messages before they happen.  The crux of the approach is rooted in taking a step backwards and nipping the problem in the bud by deepening our understanding of it, instead of designing redressal mechanisms to tackle it after the fact. It has been proven effective in helping a wide range of people build resilience to misleading information.

Prebunking is a psychological strategy for countering the effect of misinformation with the goal of assisting individuals in identifying and resisting deceptive content, hence increasing resilience against future misinformation. Online manipulation is a complex issue, and multiple approaches are needed to curb its worst effects. Prebunking provides an opportunity to get ahead of online manipulation, providing a layer of protection before individuals encounter malicious content. Prebunking aids individuals in discerning and refuting misleading arguments, thus enabling them to resist a variety of online manipulations. 

Prebunking builds mental defenses for misinformation by providing warnings and counterarguments before people encounter malicious content. Inoculating people against false or misleading information is a powerful and effective method for building trust and understanding along with a personal capacity for discernment and fact-checking. Prebunking teaches people how to separate facts from myths by teaching them the importance of thinking in terms of ‘how you know what you know’ and consensus-building. Prebunking uses examples and case studies to explain the types and risks of misinformation so that individuals can apply these learnings to reject false claims and manipulation in the future as well. 

How Prebunking Helps Individuals Spot Manipulative Messages

Prebunking helps individuals identify manipulative messages by providing them with the necessary tools and knowledge to recognize common techniques used to spread misinformation. Successful prebunking strategies include;

1. Warnings;
2. Preemptive Refutation: It explains the narrative/technique and how particular information is manipulative in structure. The Inoculation treatment messages typically include 2-3 counterarguments and their refutations. An effective rebuttal provides the viewer with skills to fight any erroneous or misleading information they may encounter in the future.
3. Micro-dosing: A weakened or practical example of misinformation that is innocuous. 

All these alert individuals to potential manipulation attempts. Prebunking also offers weakened examples of misinformation, allowing individuals to practice identifying deceptive content. It activates mental defenses, preparing individuals to resist persuasion attempts. Misinformation can exploit cognitive biases: people tend to put a lot of faith in things they’ve heard repeatedly - a fact that malicious actors manipulate by flooding the Internet with their claims to help legitimise them by creating familiarity. The ‘prebunking’ technique helps to create resilience against misinformation and protects our minds from the harmful effects of misinformation. 

Prebunking essentially helps people control the information they consume by teaching them how to discern between accurate and deceptive content. It enables one to develop critical thinking skills, evaluate sources adequately and identify red flags. By incorporating these components and strategies, prebunking enhances the ability to spot manipulative messages, resist deceptive narratives, and make informed decisions when navigating the very dynamic and complex information landscape online.

CyberPeace Policy Recommendations

• Preventing and fighting misinformation necessitates joint efforts between different stakeholders. The government and policymakers should sponsor prebunking initiatives and information literacy programmes to counter misinformation and adopt systematic approaches. Regulatory frameworks should encourage accountability in the dissemination of online information on various platforms. Collaboration with educational institutions, technological companies and civil society organisations can assist in the implementation of prebunking techniques in a variety of areas.
• Higher educational institutions should support prebunking and media literacy and offer professional development opportunities for educators, and scholars by working with academics and professionals on the subject of misinformation by producing research studies on the grey areas and challenges associated with misinformation.
• Technological companies and social media platforms should improve algorithm transparency, create user-friendly tools and resources, and work with fact-checking organisations to incorporate fact-check labels and tools.
• Civil society organisations and NGOs should promote digital literacy campaigns to spread awareness on misinformation and teach prebunking strategies and critical information evaluation. Training programmes should be available to help people recognise and resist deceptive information using prebunking tactics. Advocacy efforts should support legislation or guidelines that support and encourage prebunking efforts and promote media literacy as a basic skill in the digital landscape. 
• Media outlets and journalists including print & social media should follow high journalistic standards and engage in fact-checking activities to ensure information accuracy before release. Collaboration with prebunking professionals, cyber security experts, researchers and advocacy analysts can result in instructional content and initiatives that promote media literacy, prebunking strategies and misinformation awareness.

Final Words

The World Economic Forum's Global Risks Report 2024 identifies misinformation and disinformation as the top most significant risks for the next two years. Misinformation and disinformation are rampant in today’s digital-first reality, and the ever-growing popularity of social media is only going to see the challenges compound further. It is absolutely imperative for all netizens and stakeholders  to adopt proactive approaches to counter the growing problem of misinformation. Prebunking is a powerful problem-solving tool in this regard because it aims at ‘protection through prevention’ instead of limiting the strategy to harm reduction and redressal.  We can draw parallels with the concept of vaccination or inoculation, reducing the probability of a misinformation infection. Prebunking exposes us to a weakened form of misinformation and provides ways to identify it, reducing the chance false information takes root in our psyches.

The most compelling attribute of this approach is that the focus is not only on preventing damage but also creating widespread ownership and citizen participation in the problem-solving process. Every empowered individual creates an additional layer of protection against the scourge of misinformation, not only making safer choices for themselves but also lowering the risk of spreading false claims to others.  

References

• [1] https://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_The_Global_Risks_Report_2024.pdf
• [2] https://prebunking.withgoogle.com/docs/A_Practical_Guide_to_Prebunking_Misinformation.pdf
• [3] https://ijoc.org/index.php/ijoc/article/viewFile/17634/3565

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Introduction

The hospitality industry is noted to be one of the industries most influenced by technology. Hotels, restaurants, and travel services are increasingly reliant on digital technologies to automate core operations and customer interactions. The shift to electronic modes of conducting business has made the industry a popular target for cyber threats. In light of increasing cyber threats, safeguarding personal and sensitive personal data on the part of the hospitality industry becomes significant not only from a customer standpoint but also from an organisational and legal perspective.

Role of cybersecurity in the hospitality industry

A hospitality industry-based entity (“HI entity”) deploys several technologies not only to automate operations but to also deliver excellent customer experiences. Technologies such as IoTs that enable smart controls in rooms, Point-of-Sale systems that manage reservations, Call Accounting Systems that track and record customer calls, keyless entry systems, and mobile apps that facilitate easy booking and service requests are popularly used in addition to operative technologies such as Property Management Systems, Hotel Accounting Systems, Local Area Networks (LAN).{1} These technologies collect vast volumes of data daily due to the nature of operations. Such data necessarily includes personal information such as names, addresses, phone numbers, email IDs etc. and sensitive information such as gender, bank account and payment details, health information pertaining to food allergens etc. Resultantly, the breach and loss of such critical data impacts customer trust and loyalty and in turn, their retention within the business. Lack of adequate cybersecurity measures also impacts the reputation and goodwill of an HI entity since customers are more likely to opt for establishments that prioritise the protection of their data. In 2022, cybercriminals syphoned 20GB of internal documents and customer data from Marriott Hotels, which included credit card information and staff information such as wage data, corporate card number and even a personnel assessment file. A much larger breach was seen in 2018, where 383 million booking records and 5.3 million unencrypted passport numbers were stolen from Marriott’s servers.{2}

Cybersecurity is also central to safeguarding trade secrets and key confidential trade information. An estimate of US $6 trillion per year on average amounts to losses generated from cybercrimes.{3} The figure, however, does not include the cost of breach, expenses related to incident response, legal fees, regulatory fines etc which may be significantly higher for a HI entity when loss of potential profits is factored in.

Cybersecurity is also central from a legal standpoint. Legal provisions in various jurisdictions mandate the protection of guest data. In India, the Digital Personal Data Protection Act 2023, imposes a penalty of up to Rs. 50 Crores on a breach in observing obligations to take reasonable security safeguards to prevent personal data breach.{4} Similarly, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) of the European Union also has guidelines for protecting personal data. Several other industry-specific rules, such as those pertaining to consumer protection,  may also be applicable.

Breaches and Mitigation

There are several kinds of cyber security threats faced by an HI entity. “Fake Booking” is a popular method of cyber attack, whereby attackers build and design a website that is modelled exactly after the hotel’s legitimate website. Many customers end up using such malicious phishing websites thereby exposing their personal and sensitive personal data to threats. Additionally, the provision of free wifi within hotel premises, usually accessible freely to the public, implies that a malicious actor may introduce viruses and updates bearing malware. Other common cyber threats include denial of service (DoS) attacks, supply chain attacks, ransomware threats, SQL injection attacks (a type of attack where malicious code is inserted into a database to manipulate data and gain access to information), buffer overflow or buffer overrun (when the amount of data exceeds its storage capacity, implying that the excess data overflows into other memory locations and corrupt or overwrites data in those locations). 

One of the best ways to manage data breaches is to leverage newer technologies that operate on a “privacy by design” model. An HI entity must deploy web application firewalls (WAF) that differ from regular firewalls since they can filter the content of specific web applications and prevent cyber attacks. Another method to safeguard data is by deploying a digital certificate which binds a message/instruction to the owner/generator of the message. This is useful in preventing any false claims fraud by customers. Digital certificates may be deployed on distributed ledger technologies such as blockchain, that are noted for their immutability, transparency and security. Self-sovereign identities or Identifiers (SSI) are also a security use-concept of blockchain whereby individuals own and control their personal data, thereby eliminating reliance on central authorities.{5} In the hospitality industry, SSIs enhance cybersecurity by securely storing identity-related information on a decentralised network, thereby reducing the risk of data breaches. Users can selectively share their information, ensuring privacy and minimising data exposure. This approach not only protects guests' personal details but also streamlines authentication processes, making interactions safer and more efficient.

From a less technical standpoint, cybersecurity insurance may be opted for by a hotel to secure themselves and customer information against breach. Through such insurance, a hotel may cover the liability that arises from breaches caused by both first- and third-party actions.{6} Additionally, Payment Cards Industry Data Security Standards should be adhered to, since these standards ensure that businesses should apply best practices when processing credit card data through optimised security. Employee training and upskilling in basic, practical cybersecurity measures and good practices is also a critical component of a comprehensive cybersecurity strategy.

References:

• [1]  The Growing Importance of Cybersecurity in the Hospitality Industry”, Alfatec, 11 September 2023 https://www.alfatec.ai/academy/resource-library/the-growing-importance-of-cybersecurity-in-the-hospitality-industry
• [2]  Vigliarolo, Brandon, “Marriott Hotels admit to third data breach in 4 years”, 6 July 2022 https://www.theregister.com/2022/07/06/marriott_hotels_suffer_yet_another/#:~:text=In%20the%20case%20of%20the,of%20an%20individual%20organization%20ever. 

• [3] Shabani, Neda & Munir, Arslan. (2020). A Review of Cyber Security Issues in the Hospitality Industry. 10.1007/978-3-030-52243-8_35. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/342683038_A_Review_of_Cyber_Security_Issues_in_Hospitality_Industry/citation/download    
• [4] The Digital Personal Data Protection Act 2023 https://www.meity.gov.in/writereaddata/files/Digital%20Personal%20Data%20Protection%20Act%202023.pdf 
• [5]  “What is self-sovereign identity?”, Sovrin, 6 December 2018 https://sovrin.org/faq/what-is-self-sovereign-identity/ 
• [6] Yasar, Kinza, “Cyber Insurance”, Tech Target https://www.techtarget.com/searchsecurity/definition/cybersecurity-insurance-cybersecurity-liability-insurance