Page 24 - aruba-today-20180824

A24 TECHNOLOGY
Friday 24 august 2018

Can tech giants work together against their common enemies?

have called for a formal
industry body to address
issues such as elections
meddling, misinformation
and hate speech on social
networks, no such broad-
reaching organization ex-
ists.
The closest is the Cyberse-
curity Tech Accord, which
Microsoft, Facebook and
other companies formed to
protect businesses and us-
ers from internet crime. But
bigshots such as Google
and Twitter were notice-
ably missing. (Those com-
panies did not respond
to messages Wednesday
asking if they have joined
since).
Nonetheless, cooperation
has helped other industries
stave off regulation. For ex-
ample, the movie industry
banded together to devel-
op its own ratings system in
the 1960s to ward off gov-
This undated image provided by the cybersecurity firm FireEye shows four Twitter pages affiliated with "Liberty Front Press," which ernment censorship.
FireEye has called an influence operation masquerading as liberal U.S. activists and apparently aimed at promoting Iranian politi- Jeff Bardin, chief informa-
cal interests. tion officer at the secu-
rity firm Treadstone 71, said
By BARBARA ORTUTAY who are getting smarter share information to fight how the malicious actors cooperation is one way
AP Technology Writer and smarter at evading the terrorism, child pornogra- communicate, operate to combat fake accounts
NEW YORK (AP) — Face- tech companies' controls. phy, malware and spam. and move among various without imposing tighter
book, Twitter and Google Case in point: While Face- They are now adding glob- services, Facebook said in verification when users sign
routinely squabble for users, book said there was no al political threats from na- a blog post on Tuesday. "To up. Of course, if Facebook
engineers and advertising evidence that Russian and tion-states. In congressional help gather this informa- started asking potential
money. Yet it makes sense Iranian actors cooperated hearings earlier this year, tion, we often share intel- members for a govern-
for these tech giants to with each other in the latest Facebook General Coun- ligence with other compa- ment-issued ID and a home
work together on security efforts to create fake ac- sel Colin Stretch said Face- nies once we have a basic address, it would drive peo-
threats, elections meddling counts to mislead users, the book, Twitter and Google grasp of what's happen- ple away.
and other common ills. company said their tactics have a "long history" of ing," the company wrote. "There is no way they will
Such cooperation was evi- were similar. In other words, working together on such Even with all the coopera- do that upfront," he said.
dent Tuesday when Face- if the bad guys are learning threats. He expressed hope tion, disagreements ex- So, what's left is to continue
book announced that it from each other, the com- that sharing information ist. The companies don't to play the cat-and-mouse
had removed 652 suspi- panies fighting them would becomes "industry stan- always agree on when game, catching and re-
cious pages, groups and need to do the same. dard practice." and how to go public with moving the enemy and
accounts linked to Russia Facebook has significantly Understanding the threat threats they uncover, for then learning its new tac-
and Iran. This was followed stepped up policing of its requires understanding example. And while critics tics as it changes them.q
by similar news from Twitter. services since last year,
On Monday, meanwhile, when it acknowledged
Microsoft reported a new that Russian agents suc-
Russian effort to imperson- cessfully used Facebook to
ate conservative U.S. web- run political influence op-
sites, potentially as part of erations aimed at swaying
an espionage campaign. the 2016 presidential elec-
Cooperation makes it eas- tion.
ier for tech companies to Other social media com-
combat fraudulent use of panies have done likewise
their services. It also makes and continue to turn up
them look good in the eyes fresh evidence of political
of their users and regula- disinformation campaigns.
tors by showing that they While some of the 2016 dis-
take the threats seriously ruptions seemed to support
enough to set aside com- certain candidates, more
petitive differences. recent campaigns appear
They have little other aimed at sowing discord
choice if they want to and driving people to more
avoid regulation and stay extreme sides of the politi-
ahead of — or just keep up cal stage.
with — the malicious actors, Tech companies already