Viral ads create ethical concerns when they blur the line between public service announcements and sheer terror to reach millions of viewers. A disturbing indictment of parents neglecting their children’s privacy and security – with tragic consequences – has been viewed millions of times.
First-world problems? What do you do when you run out of ‘legitimate’ military targets? According to the security ‘establishment’, you simply leverage unregulated artificial intelligence: “Nothing is immune. It is a war policy that is increasingly being helped by the use of big data, automation software and AI” As standards bodies and legislators work to…
I don’t envy those who will have to clean up a 1.5 TB data breach going back to the last millennium, involving compromised personal information shared with up to 8000 suppliers*. While the cyberattack was confirmed as far back as September, formal conclusions have yet to be published, so I’m going to take a moment…
Depending on whose statistics you trust, cybercrime will cost the world almost $10 Trillion* in 2024 and 91% of breaches start with phishing.** Weaponized email attacks are notoriously difficult to identify because they use social engineering, fear and urgency to trigger an impulsive reaction. But what if I told you it’s as easy as spotting…
The theme for World Children’s Day 2023 is ‘For Every Child, Every Right!’ As the world remains sharply divided on the unfolding tragedies in the Middle East, cyber criminals apparently strive for unity and humanitarian support for children… by trying to scam people out of crypto donations. “Together, we can make a difference. No contribution…
“It has long been my view that the Security Council no longer serves the purpose for which it was established – with all due respect.” Ouch! The World Health Organization’s chief’s closing statement landed hard, even as it echoed many other influential calls for UNSC reform. I am particularly reminded of the Kenyan ambassador’s speech…
As the team from Canada’s only cybersafety foundation briefed me on disinformation campaigns from the current conflict in the Middle East, it was immediately evident that asymmetric information warfare is being waged with increased sophistication in cyberspace. Surprisingly, while Hamas and Israel engage in brutal military battles, Western and European countries – and specifically Internet…
Every breach of children’s privacy is severe and has the potential to cause lasting harms. Since the watershed year 2016 when many Canadian boards of education were financially incentivised to make the irreversible leap from on-premise information systems to cloud edtech ‘learning management systems’, a massive brain drain simultaneously took place within their IT and…
As fake ‘active shooter’ calls occur with greater frequency across the US, there is increasing evidence that they represent coordinated acts of domestic terrorism that should be prosecuted as such. A far cry from the the old bomb threats and other telephonic mischief, today’s swatting-as-a-service is commercially available on the dark web and often used…
As reputable outlets* breathlessly peg the global impact of cybercrime in the trillions of dollars, the reality is that the bulk of the business comes from strong-arming victims using ransomware. As recently as a decade ago, cyber-extortionists saw themselves as modern-day Robin Hoods, who merely appropriated the surplus of bloated, negligent capitalists in an effort…
