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A24 TECHNOLOGY
Monday 16 deceMber 2019
NATO researchers: Social media failing to stop manipulation

By KELVIN CHAN port said. YouTube was the
AP Business Writer easiest site on which to cre-
LONDON (AP) — Social me- ate fake accounts but the
dia companies are failing best at countering artificial
to stop manipulated activ- likes and video views.
ity, according to a report Manipulating Instagram is
Friday by NATO-affiliated easy and cheap because
researchers who said they the site is was largely un-
were easily able to buy tens able to detect and stop
of thousands of likes, com- it, while Twitter was best at
ments and views on Face- detecting and removing
book, Twitter, YouTube and manipulation.
Instagram. Facebook was best at stop-
Most of the phony ac- ping fake accounts, but
counts and the activity any that got through were
they engaged in remained more successful because
online weeks later, even af- This combination of images shows logos for companies from left, Twitter, YouTube and Facebook. they faced little further
ter researchers at the NATO Associated Press scrutiny, and their com-
Strategic Command Cen- ments and views weren’t
tre of Excellence flagged ter the 2016 U.S. election, of government pages. were at least six months old removed. Facebook says it
them up as fake. when Russian influence ef- To carry out the study, the and carried neutral and disabled 2.2 billion fake ac-
The center, an indepen- forts came to light. The re- researchers turned to the non-political messages, counts in the first quarter of
dent group based in Lat- searchers found that most “manipulation service pro- such as “Hello!” and “Thank this year.
via that advises the military fake social media activity is vider” industry, which is ex- you!” on New Year’s greet- “Fake engagement tactics
alliance, said the findings bought for commercial, not panding to feed the grow- ings from European Union remain a challenge facing
contrast with statements political, reasons. It can in- ing demand for phony commissioners. the entire industry,” Face-
from tech companies that clude Instagram influencers clicks and likes. They used Four weeks later, 80% of the book, which also owns In-
say they’ve been working trying to pump up their pro- 16 companies, most based fake activity remained on- stagram, said in a state-
harder on stamping out files to make more money in Russia, to buy fake online line, the researchers found, ment.
manipulation. from their brand contracts. engagement for 105 posts as they sought to gauge “We’re making massive in-
“Overall social media com- Fake accounts are still on Facebook, Twitter, You- whether the sites were in- vestments to find and re-
panies are experiencing used for political means, Tube and Instagram. They dependently detecting move fake accounts and
significant challenges in though it’s a minor slice of spent just 300 euros ($330) misuse. They then report- engagement every day.”
countering the malicious the industry and aimed at to purchase 3,530 com- ed 100 of the accounts YouTube said it takes any
use of their platforms,” the “non-western” pages, the ments, 25,750 likes, 20,000 as fake, but found about abuse of its systems seri-
report said. researchers said, noting views and 5,100 followers. 95 remained active three ously and has invested in
Online manipulation they were used to buy en- To avoid influencing real weeks later. technology to prevent the
emerged as a major issue gagement on hundreds of conversations, they only Some companies were artificial inflation of video
for tech companies af- political pages and dozens bought clicks for posts that better than others, the re- view counts. q

Florida city mum on ransom demands by cyberattackers

By BOBBY CAINA CALVAN the attack that brought documents if they didn’t more than 948 U.S. govern- City officials refused to pay
and FRANK BAJAK down the city’s computer pay. Ble epingComputer ment agencies, education- demands for $76,000 in bit-
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — network over the week- editor Lawrence Abrams al institutions and health coin.
A Florida city confirmed end, less than a day after said the Maze operators care providers were hit in During the summer, two
Friday that hackers seek- a Saudi aviation student had authenticated their an unprecedented bar- Florida cities — Riviera
ing to extort money were killed three U.S. sailors and identity with proof of a dif- rage at a potential cost of Beach and Lake City —
responsible for crippling its wounded eight other peo- ferent hack and by posting more than $7.5 billion. paid hackers more than $1
computer systems earlier ple at a nearby naval air snippets of email exchang- New Jersey’s largest hospi- million combined after be-
this week but officials have station. es with his blog on a dark- tal system and the city of ing targeted.
yet to decide whether they The FBI has said the attacks web payment site. New Orleans are among Pensacola officials be-
will pay a reported $1 mil- were not connected. City officials declined to the most recent U.S. ran- came aware of the cyber-
lion ransom. The cybersecurity blog discuss who might have somware victims. attack against their city
If they do opt to fork over BleepingComputer report- been responsible or any In New Orleans, investiga- about 1:30 a.m. Saturday.
the money, they may have ed earlier this week that a ransom amount demand- tors discovered ransom- Ever since, information
to dip into Pensacola city group behind a ransom- ed against the city. ware as they looked into technology technicians
coffers; the city of about ware strain known as Maze The city said it has restored a suspected cyberattack have been working to re-
52,000 in Florida’s Panhan- claimed responsibility for some services, including that led to a shutdown of store services as city of-
dle — whose annual bud- the attack and was de- email, phone services and city computers on Friday. ficials continued to take
get is roughly $245 million manding $1 million from the utility online bill payments. City officials said they had stock of the damage, if
— is not insured for such an city. Ransomware infections not received a ransom de- any, and determine what
attack. In emails exchanged with reached epidemic dimen- mand, however, and it was information might have
Obtaining it in the future the website, the Maze sions this year, and security initially unclear whether the been compromised or sto-
is “something that our risk hackers claimed they had researchers are concerned attack did any damage to len by the hackers.
manager will certainly stolen documents from the ransomware could also dis- the city’s system. Lagarde would not say
be looking into,” said city city but didn’t say whether rupt next year’s U.S. presi- In May, a cyberattack hob- whether any personal
spokeswoman Kaycee La- they had given Pensacola dential elections. bled Baltimore’s computer or financial data was
garde. officials a deadline to pay According to a new report network and cost the city breached. She said the city
Lagarde confirmed that for them or if they had released this week by the more than $18 million to re- would notify residents and
ransomware was behind threatened to release the cybersecurity firm Emsisoft, pair. customers as warranted. q