In trying to simplify our daily interactions with technology we give control to companies to manage security on our behalf. One way big tech has tried to protect us is through 2 factor authentication, to prove we are who we say we are, but is it working and do we get a choice?
Phishing texts are requesting the same information from a phone user that they asked for on email. The difference is that if you click on a suspect link on your phone it can download a screening tool that extracts private information direct from your phone, including your whereabouts via GPS and other forms of identity theft. Phishing is a serious crime that often comes with financial and safety implications for the unsuspecting, fooled victim.
Listening to The Guardian’s special 5 part podcast series, The Pegasus Project, to get a true understanding of how it is that governments and national law enforcement agencies pay NSO Group, the Israeli spyware company, to use their Pegasus software, under the guise that they will use it ‘to save lives’. NSO says they vet all their clients but some of their clients are countries and enforcement authorities have a contestable human rights record. They may come to NSO group with well intentioned tenders but this surveillance software is sold to clients with cash.
The media are mostly responsible for the reportage of hacking scandals and malware infiltration as they largely affect all manner of institutions; government, commercial and public.
Late last year when most of us were attempting to check-out on a year that had dealt some terrible blows, real and imagined, there was a flurry of journalistic activity reporting a dramatic, global story of digital security gone awry.
