Published: May 12th, 2021 Fight hate on private messaging apps, how Zix is used for scams, a warning on QR codes and more. Welcome to Cyber Security Today. It’s Wednesday, May 12th. I’m Howard Solomon, contributing reporter on cybersecurity for ITWorldCanada.com.
The government of Canada should do more to stop disinformation on private internet messaging platforms like WhatsApp, Telegram, WeChat, Facebook Messenger and Snapchat. That’s the recommendation of the cybersecurity policy exchange at Toronto’s Ryerson University. There’s a lot of discussion about disinformation on public social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook. But in a report issued Tuesday the exchange says private messaging apps are also being abused by fake news, hate speech, sexual comments and materials that incite violence. In a survey of 2,500 Canadians, a quarter of respondents said they get messages with hate speech at least once a month. Rates are higher among people of colour. Almost half said they get private messages at least once a month that they suspect are false. Some platforms label suspect messages and limit the number of targets that suspect messages can go to. But the report says the federal government should do more, including improving digital literacy so people can spot falsehoods, and demanding transparency from private messaging platforms on how many accounts host and distribute bad material. There’s a link to the full report here.