Category: Online Safety

Cyber security – a ‘Holy Grail’?

Posted on by The Information Badger in AI, Business, Information Technology, Online Safety, Online Services, Privacy and Surveillance, Public safety, Risk, Security

King Arthur was a legendary medieval king of Britain. His association with the search for the ‘Holy Grail’, described in various traditions as a cup, dish, or stone with miraculous healing powers and, sometimes, providing eternal youth or infinite sustenance, stems from the 12th century. Since then, the search has become an essential part of Arthurian legend, so much so that Monty Python parodied it in their 1975 film. Indeed, it’s common for people today to refer to any goal that seems impossible to reach as a ‘Holy Grail’. It’s become a powerful metaphor for a desired, ultimate achievement that’s beyond reach.

Recently, bad cyber actors – a phrase used here to refer collectively to wicked individuals, gangs, and organisations, regardless of their location, ideology, ultimate sponsorship or specific motives – have caused a plethora of highly disruptive incidents in the UK. Incidents at the Co-op, Marks & Spencer, Harrods, JLR, and  Kido  have been high profile due to the nature and scale of the impact on the companies themselves, their supply chains, their customers, and also potentially the economy. Behind the scenes (see here, for example) questions are, no doubt, being asked not only of the relevant IT service providers, but also more generally about how vulnerable we are to cyber security threats.

While taking in the colours of Autumn visible through the window by his desk, the Badger found himself mulling over what these incidents imply in a modern world reliant on the internet, online services, automation and underlying IT systems. As the UK government’s ‘Cyber security breaches survey – 2025’ shows, the number of bad cyber actor incidents reported is high, with many more going unreported. AI, as the National Cyber Security Centre  indicates, means that bad actors will inevitably become more effective in their intrusion operations, and so we can expect an increase in the frequency and intensity of cyber threats in the coming years. The musing Badger, therefore, concluded that organisations need to be relentlessly searching for a ‘Holy Grail’ to protect their operations from being vulnerable to serious cyber security breaches. As he watched a few golden leaves flutter to the ground, the Badger also concluded that in a world underpinned by complex IT, continuous digital evolution, and AI, this ‘Holy Grail’ will never be found. But that doesn’t mean organisations should stop searching for it!

These damaging incidents highlight again that cyber security cannot be taken for granted, especially when the tech revolution of recent decades has enabled anyone with a little knowledge and internet access to be a bad cyber actor. The UK government’s just announced the introduction of  digital ID by 2029. Perhaps they have found a ‘Holy Grail’ that guarantees not only the security of personal data, but also that its IT programmes will deliver on time and to their original budget? Hmm, that’s very doubtful…

Banning social media for the under-16s…

Posted on by The Information Badger in Education, Ethics & Regulation, Information Technology, Life, Online Safety, social media, Tech for social good, Wellbeing

Richard Holway,  a well-known, respected, and influential analyst in the UK software and IT services markets, penned an item last week for TechMarketView entitled ‘What have we done?’. The item relates to the harm that social media and smartphones are doing to children. As a grandparent with a background in software and IT services, and having a grandchild who’s just started school, it struck a chord and reinforced the Badger’s own opinion that they have indeed caused great harm for children under 16. Holding this view doesn’t make the Badger, or anyone else with the same opinion come to that, an anti-tech dinosaur, just a human being who is pro technology that has safety, security, privacy, and human well-being as its paramount priorities. When it comes to ensuring the best for children in their formative years, it seems to be mainly the unprincipled and unscrupulous who argue about having these as dominant priorities.

History is littered with ‘products’ of one kind or another that were widely popular but were ultimately recognised over time as being a danger to human well-being. Plastics, DDT, cigarettes, fossil fuels, asbestos, paint with lead in it, illustrate the point. Did you know that a century ago cigarettes were advertised as being beneficial for asthma and anxiety? Also, incredibly popular patent medicines in the 19th and early 20th centuries  had no restrictions on what they contained. Many contained cocaine, morphine, and heroin. A very popular cough mixture for children did, indeed, include  heroin! Things, of course, changed once society eventually realised the scale of addiction and early deaths that occurred. It has long seemed to the Badger that aspects of our rampant tech-dominated world, especially with regard to social media, are following this same historical template, especially when it comes to use by children.

In little more than two decades, social media has evolved from being a novel way of staying connected to family and friends, into a powerful global force that shapes many dimensions of daily life. Evidence that social media has harmful effects on children is growing all the time. Science shows that social media causes the release of large amounts of dopamine into the human brain just like addictive drugs such as heroin, and even alcohol. No wonder it’s easy to get hooked!

Like Mr Holway, the Badger fully supports the ban on smartphones and social media apps for children under the age of 16. As you can see here, the legal age in the UK is 18 to buy alcohol, tobacco products, knives, and certain types of DVDs and games. The legal age is 16 to buy pets and animals, petrol, matches, and to be in fulltime employment. Why, therefore, shouldn’t smartphones and social media apps be banned for children under the age of 16? As Mr Spock from Star Wars would say, ‘Isn’t it illogical, Jim, to do otherwise?’

The price for being a Digital Citizen…

Posted on by The Information Badger in Digital Transformation, Information Technology, Life, Online Safety, Online Services, Privacy and Surveillance, Risk, Security, social media, Tech for social good

The vast majority of people are now ‘digital citizens’. There are many definitions of what being a digital citizen means, but the Badger thinks the term simply describes anyone who regularly uses the internet, online services, and IT to engage with social society, business, work, politics, and government. Becoming a digital citizen, in the Badger’s view, starts when any individual acquires an email address and then shares information online, uses e-commerce to buy merchandise, uses any other online service, or simply browses the internet. Everyone reading this is a digital citizen.

The Badger’s been a digital citizen for more years than he cares to admit to, but over the last decade he’s become circumspect and increasingly alarmed by the deterioration in responsible use of online technology and the internet by individuals and organisations. Yesterday the Badger helped an elderly neighbour carry their shopping bags the last few metres to their doorstep and was invited in for a quick cup of tea as a thank you. During the ensuing conversation, the Badger’s neighbour, a sharp 85-year-old ex-civil servant, mentioned they were a digital agnostic who strongly believed that the digital world has produced a surveillance society. They have a point, especially when you consider the following.

Supermarkets know what we purchase and when from our online transactions and use of debit and loyalty cards. They use this data for their business and to market products to us via, for example, voucher and loyalty point schemes. They don’t sell the data to others, but its theft by bad actors via security breaches can never be ruled out. The same is true for other retail companies. And then there’s the online giants like Amazon, Google, and Meta et al who capture so much data about our interests, behaviours, and habits that they often know more about a person than the person knows about themselves. All of this coupled with the fact that energy, transport, banking, central and local government functions are now also ‘online first’,  just reinforces the fact that the data describing our personal lives is in the digital ether and can be used for purposes which are invisible to most people.

Putting this together holistically with the fact that the UK has one of the highest densities of CCTV cameras amongst Western countries, with approximately 1 camera for every 13 people, it’s difficult to deny that the digital world has produced a surveillance society in barely 25 years. The price for being a digital citizen is thus personal acceptance of more and more surveillance. But here’s an interesting thought to end this musing with. Digital citizens are not just victims of surveillance, they are perpetrators too! Anyone who has checked out others using social media or internet searches has essentially engaged in surveillance. The digital world has thus made us all spies…

The Law of Unintended Consequences…

Posted on by The Information Badger in AI & Robotics, Digital Transformation, Information Technology, Life, Online Safety, Online Services, Privacy and Surveillance, social media, Technology

If you’ve a couple of minutes spare then read the item here. It was published in 2013 and what’s striking is that the exact same words could be used if it had been written today! A 2010 item, ‘Technology: The law of unintended consequences’, by the same author also stands the test of time. Reading both has caused the Badger to muse on unintended consequences, especially those that have emerged from the digital and online world over the last few decades.

The ‘Law of Unintended Consequences’ is real and is, in essence, quite simple. It declares that every action by a person, company, or government can have positive or negative consequences that are unforeseen. An amusing manifestation of the law in action happened in 2016 when a UK Government agency conducted an online poll for the public to name the agency’s latest polar research ship. The public’s choice, Boaty McBoatface, wasn’t the kind of name the agency anticipated!

One characteristic of unintended consequences is that they tend to emerge over a long period. The internet and social media illustrate this neatly. Both have changed the behaviour of people (especially the young), companies, and governments, and both have challenged safety, security, and privacy like never before. Indeed, the Australian government’s recent decision to ban those under 16 years old from social media demonstrates just how long it’s taken to address some of social media’s unintended consequences since its advent a couple of decades ago.

During his IT career, the Badger participated in delivering the many benefits of digital and online technology to society, but now, more mindful of unintended consequences, he wonders if a future dominated by virtuality, AI, and colossal tech corporations is a good thing for his grandson’s generation. After all, the online and digital world is not where real, biological, life takes place, and there’s more to life than being a slave to our devices.

The ‘Law of Unintended Consequences’ can never be ignored. Although a professional and disciplined approach to progress always reduces the scope for unintended consequences, the fact is these will happen. This means, for example, that there’ll be unintended consequences from the likes of AI, driverless vehicles, and robots at home, and that, in practice, it will take years for these unintended consequences to emerge properly. But emerge they will!

Looking back over recent decades, it’s clear that digital and online technology has delivered benefits. It’s also clear that it’s brought complication, downsides, and unintended consequences to the lives of people in all age groups. The Badger’s concluded that we need a law that captures the relationship between progress, unintended consequences, and real life. So, here’s Badger’s Law: ‘Progress always produces unintended consequences that complicate and compromise the real life of people’. Gosh, it’s astonishing where articles penned over a decade ago can take your thoughts…

Social media – in the doghouse again…

Posted on by The Information Badger in Ethics & Regulation, Information Technology, Online Safety, Public safety, social media, Tech for social good, Wellbeing

Social media platforms are in the doghouse again due to the spread of misinformation, falsehoods, incitement, and hate as a result of the horrendous attack on innocent children in Southport. Media and political rhetoric about the role of social media in the violence and criminality that followed this incident has been predictable. It can be of no surprise that social media was a factor because it’s part of the very fabric of modern life. It’s used by 82.8% of the UK population. Most individuals, businesses, and media, community, and political organisations have a presence on, and actively use, at least one social media platform. Most normal, law-abiding, social media users and organisations will thus have been exposed at some stage to the vitriol, falsehoods, and distorted content that is becoming more and more commonplace on these platforms.

Elon Musk’s war of words with the UK’s Prime Minister, a government minister’s thoughts on X, and a debate about whether we should say goodbye to Mr Musk’s platform,  simply illustrate, the Badger feels, that social media has become more divisive and polarizing than a force for convergence and solutions.  It has disrupted society in just a couple of decades, and it will continue to do so because the platforms are commercial enterprises whose business models and legal status are centred on profiting, without editorial responsibility, from the content their users post. The platforms have become too powerful, and politicians have been like plodding donkeys in dealing with their impact on society.

Social media isn’t all bad and it isn’t going away anytime soon. Handwringing about its role in free speech, something that platforms assert as a defence against regulation, is futile. What’s needed is a lucid articulation of free speech like that given by Rowan Atkinson (Mr Bean) some years ago, followed by aligned, rapid, regulation that a) society’s law-abiding majority can relate to and understand, and b) holds the platforms and their users to account fairly. At the very least, users of a platform must take responsibility for the content they post, and platforms cannot shirk accountability for distributing and making money from content that damages society. Perhaps things will change with the UK’s Online Safety Law now coming into effect? Time, as they say, will tell.

The Badger’s agnostic about social media. He’s never felt that it’s really a good use of his time, but the chances of everyone significantly reducing their addiction to it in today’s world are negligible. But what if they did? The power of platforms would dissipate as their revenues and profits decline, and people would realise they can actually cope and adapt quickly to life without them. Perhaps the riot aftermath of Southport would not have happened? Perhaps it’s time to fight against being addicted slaves? Oops, just remember this is a musing, not an incitement to riot…

Once privacy has gone in the digital world, it’s gone…

Posted on by The Information Badger in Information Technology, Online Safety, Privacy and Surveillance, Security

Sitting quietly under a parasol, beer in hand, observing a beach full of people enjoying  the recent sunny weather, triggered fond memories of days at the same beach in the 1970s. How things have changed since then! Today, those on the beach are, let’s put it tactfully, ‘bigger’. (The average British man is around 7.62 cm taller, and 10.4 kgs heavier than 50 years ago). Adults with tattoos are commonplace, whereas in the 1970s tattoos featured primarily on seafarers and unruly motorcyclists. When soaking up the sun’s rays today, most beachgoers are using their smartphone or tablet for social media and surfing the internet, for taking copious photos and videos, and for streaming music or watching movies. Printed newspapers and magazines, portable transistor radios and cassette players, and cameras requiring photographic film – all commonplace at the beach in the 1970s – are a rare sight on the beach today.

As he quaffed his beer, the Badger reflected on how the digital world has changed our lives since the 1970s, a decade when pen and paper dominated, a computer was programmed with cards or paper tape, and an affordable electronic pocket calculator was a great leap forward! Way back then, what we take for granted today was science fiction. Progress, however, always comes at a price, and today’s frequent security breaches, data thefts, IT system problems causing widespread disruption and inconvenience, and misinformation, disinformation, and scurrilous content on social media, all expose the fact that part of this price has been an erosion of personal privacy.

When today’s world is typified by things like those reported here, here, here, here, and here, and AI- produced, deepfake video, photos, and audio are ever more commonplace, then people who value their privacy must be wary, clear-headed, and ruthlessly objective about protecting it, much more so than in the 1970s. The Badger, observing the beachgoers liberally using their personal devices, asked himself whether they were doing so with their privacy in the forefront of their mind? Were they conscious of how many online enterprises know their email address, contact details, their likes and dislikes, what they buy and when? Were they conscious that there is a reasonable probability that their personal data has been leaked in cyber-attacks? Were they aware that a deep fake of them can be produced by anyone with scurrilous intent in the digital world from a single image, ~40 seconds of speech audio, and a few cheap AI tools? The Badger’s doubtful.

The advent of the digital world since the 1970s has brought many benefits, but it’s been at the expense of eroded personal privacy. Who’s to blame? Well, blaming others misses the point because protecting our own privacy starts with our own actions and behaviours. So, if you value your privacy, then think very carefully whenever you upload content to the virtual world, because once privacy’s gone, it’s gone…  

Is social media the new tobacco?

Posted on by The Information Badger in Health & Social Care, Learning, Life, Online Safety, Online Services, Opinion, social media, Wellbeing

The UK’s in the throes of a General Election and, whether we like it or not, social media is an important part of campaigning for politicians, political parties, and any person or organisation wanting to influence the outcome. Social media is the modern billboard. The Badger’s always been cautious about social media, and he engages with it in moderation. Why? Because his IT career spanned the time from its origin through to its evolution into being dominated by the global, revenue and profit dominated goliaths we have today.  He’s learned that it’s a minefield for the unwary, and perilous for those vulnerable to the tsunami of memes, misinformation, disinformation, sales and marketing spin, scams and bile that is regularly delivered. Social media is, of course, here to stay. The Badger, however, overcame any fear of missing out (FOMO) regarding its content many years ago. He thus ignores any content that is election related.

Aside from the UK election, something relevant to social media caught the Badger’s attention this week. It was the USA’s Surgeon General’s call for  tobacco-style warnings on the hazards of using social media. This struck a chord because the Badger’s quietly thought for some time that social media is the new tobacco! The Badger hasn’t lost his mind because, as they say, ‘there’s method to the madness’.

Tobacco’s been with us for centuries, see here.  Cigarettes evolved in the 1830s, and smoking was a norm for adults across UK society in the 1920s, driven ostensibly by cigarettes being included in First World War military rations and heavy advertising by tobacco companies. Smoking continued to grow, with the highest level for men recorded as 82% in1948. Tobacco companies, of course, grew fast, and became extremely rich and powerful. The health issues associated with tobacco were known long before the 1950s when the evidence of the impact of smoking on public health became incontrovertible. Since then, steps have been taken to eliminate smoking. The tobacco companies have fought to protect their revenues, and tobacco-related legislation only really started changing significantly in the early 2000s.

Doesn’t this progression of a product, mass marketing, widespread public adoption as a norm, the growth of wealthy and powerful companies protecting their product at all costs, eventual public realisation of the product’s damage to society and individual health, followed by long overdue corrective action resonate with what’s happening with social media? The Badger thinks it does. For tobacco, the progression has taken a century or more, but for social media it’s happening over just a few decades. The Badger senses that the Surgeon General’s call for tobacco style warnings has its place, but more needs to be done faster or society and individual health will be in an even bigger pickle at the end of this decade. Just a thought…

Protecting your privacy…

Posted on by The Information Badger in AI & Robotics, Online Safety, Online Services, Privacy and Surveillance, Risk, social media, Technology

The arrival of a scam email, a television programme on Banking Scams, scurrilous AI generated images of Taylor Swift, news of a fake robocall using President Biden’s voice, and the UK’s National Cyber Security Centre’s warning that the global ransomware threat will rise with AI, made the Badger think about protecting privacy this week.

The following facts underpinned his musing. LinkedIn, Facebook, X (Twitter), Instagram, Snapchat, and TikTok were launched in 2003, 2004, 2006, 2010, 2011, and 2016, respectively. Amazon was founded in 1994, Netflix in 1997, Google in 1998, Spotify in 2006, and WhatsApp in 2009. The first smartphone with internet connectivity arrived in 2000 when life was very different, as neatly illustrated here. Over barely 30 years, tech and these companies have changed the dynamics of daily life, and what constitutes personal privacy, for everyone. These companies, fledglings 25 years ago but now more powerful than many countries, harvest, hold, and use vast swathes of our personal data. What constitutes privacy for an individual has thus inevitably changed, and, the Badger feels, not for the better compared with 25 years ago. What other conclusion could you make when huge data breaches and scandals like Cambridge Analytica expose individuals to security threats and privacy risk like never before? And along comes AI making the risk to individuals much, much worse!

Everything done online today is tracked and used for some purpose. If you use an internet-connected personal device then the world’s plumbing knows where you are and what you’re doing. When it comes to privacy, therefore, the old saying ‘an Englishman’s home is his castle’ was much more relevant 30 years ago than it is today. With vast swathes of our personal data held online it’s hardly surprising that bad actors want to get their hands on it for nefarious purposes. As Channel 5’s  ‘Banking Scams; Don’t get caught out’ programme recently highlighted, just a small amount of your personal data in the wrong hands can make your life a misery. AI just adds another dimension to the potential scale of that misery.

With online interactions a norm of modern life and AI manipulation of images, video, and speech becoming more widespread, the Badger wondered if there’s something other than good cyber security practices that anyone can do to bolster their personal privacy. Well, there is. Don’t post photos, videos, or voice recordings of yourself on social media platforms! Your face, your body, and your voice are part of your real identity, so why make them easy pickings for anyone of a wicked disposition? The Badger’s lost the plot, you may think, but his fundamental point is this. Think about your privacy the next time you post photos, video, or voice recordings on a social media platform. After all, the responsibility for protecting your privacy fundamentally rests with you…  

The biggest challenge of 2024 and beyond…

Posted on by The Information Badger in Information Technology, Life, Online Safety, Online Services, Opinion, Press & Media, Public Institutions, Public safety, Risk, Smart & New Technology, Technology, Wellbeing

This year, 2024, will bring many challenges of one kind or another. Every new year, of course, contains challenges, some which already feature in our awareness, and some which don’t because they tend to emerge from leftfield in due course. The online world, the traditional press, and broadcast media provide plenty of opinion on forthcoming challenges at this time of year, but they tend to highlight things that are already the larger blips on our awareness radar. To start the year off, therefore, the Badger set himself a personal challenge, namely, to decide on the world’s biggest challenge for 2024 and beyond, one that deserves to be a much bigger blip on everyone’s  radar.

The following reality provided the backdrop for the Badger’s deliberations:

  • Life today is dominated by digital technology, global connectivity, the internet, automation, and an addiction to smartphones whose applications provide immediacy of information, anytime, anyplace, for ~75% of the world’s population.
  • Digital evolution continues apace, AI is advancing rapidly and cannot be ignored, international conflict is on the rise, politics is increasingly polarised, and the world order is under considerable strain.
  • Unforeseen natural, humanitarian, financial, and economic crises, are an inevitability.

A front runner for the biggest challenge of 2024 and beyond emerged quickly in the Badger’s thoughts, ostensibly because it had already been bubbling in his mind for months. He quickly concluded that this front runner was indeed the world’s biggest challenge. So, what is it? Put simply, it’s to stem the rise of distrust.

Trust is a fundamental component of cooperation, relationships of all kinds, business, service, and interactions between social groups and different cultures. Society is on a slippery slope to failure without it. Unfortunately, research over the last decade or so shows that our levels of distrust have been progressively rising. Distrust in politicians, governments, corporates, and their leaders continues to rise. Similarly, distrust of the internet and social media continues to grow as we all become more aware of data breaches, fake and weaponised news, misinformation, disinformation, online safety, security and privacy issues, swindles, and cyber-crime. AI seems unlikely to change the trend. The Badger thus feels that stemming the rise of distrust  warrants being the world’s greatest challenge if we want a better society for our children and grandchildren.

Addressing this challenge is not easy, but change starts when lots of people make small adjustments to their behaviour. This year the Badger has resolved to stem his rising distrust of  ‘pushed’ online content that has become the norm in our 24×7 online world. He’s breaking the mould, taking back control, and engaging with it differently and more selectively in 2024. New Year resolutions, of course, have a habit of falling by the wayside. It’s early days, but so far so good…

AI, spooks, and red poppies…

Posted on by The Information Badger in AI & Robotics, Ethics & Regulation, Information Technology, Life, Online Safety, Public safety, Risk, Security, Technology

The UK weather at this time of year is often variable, and this year is no exception. Rain last night decimated Halloween’s ‘trick-or-treating’ and sightings of ghostly spirits, at least in the Badger’s locality. However, those at this week’s global AI Safety Summit at Bletchley Park will no doubt have some fun ‘spotting the spook’ because there’ll inevitably be ‘spooks’ from shadowy organisations in their midst! The summit brings together governments, leading AI companies, and many others to consider the risks associated with rapidly advancing AI technologies, and how these can be mitigated via international coordination and regulation.

Given that it’s barely a year since ChatGPT was launched, the fact that this summit is taking place is encouraging. But will something tangible emerge from it? The Badger’s quietly hopeful, even though governments and regulators have historically been glacial and have only acted once a technology is already well-established. The UK government, for example, has taken almost 20 years to establish an online safety law to limit the harms caused by social media. AI pioneers have themselves voiced concern about the threats, and it will be a catastrophe if it takes another 20 years to limit the potential harms from this field of  technology!

With Halloween a damp squib, the Badger’s thoughts about the AI Safety Summit roamed fancifully influenced by November’s Guy Fawkes Night and Remembrance Sunday which are just days away. ‘Spooks’ from the shadowy organisations providing intelligence to governments will certainly push for more sophisticated AI capabilities in their operational kitbag to ensure, for example, that the chance of a repeat of Guy Fawkes’ 1605 attempt to blow up Parliament is infinitesimally small! Militaries will also want to develop and use ever more advanced AI capabilities to enhance their physical, informational, and cyber operational defensive and offensive capabilities. Inevitably, lessons learned from current conflicts will fuel further military AI development, but whatever any future with AI looks like, the Badger thinks that red poppies and  Remembrance Sunday will remain an annual constant.

The Badger’s grandfathers, and his father and father-in-law, served in the British Army in the two World Wars of the 20th Century. They rarely spoke about their experiences, but they were proud to have fought for the freedoms and way of life we take for granted today. Now all passed away, what would they think about the threat that AI poses to our future? Just two things; that an identified threat should always be dealt with sooner rather than later, and that we must never allow Remembrance Sunday to wither on the vine of time because it’s a reminder to everyone that it’s man who makes sacrifices to protect freedoms, not machines.

‘They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:

Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.

At the going down of the sun and in the morning

We will remember them.’