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INDEPENDENT PUBLICATION BY 17 / 12 / 2017 #0495 raconteur.net CYBERRISK & RESILIENCE politically motivated attacks. In August, Starbucks was the subject of a high-profi le hoax dubbed Dreamer Day. Originating from the recesses of the far-right bulletin board 4chan, the hoax was intended to troll Starbucks' chief executive, the left-leaning Howard Schultz. A fake campaign spread through social media saying that Starbucks would off er a free or heavily discounted iced coff ee to all undocumented immigrants in the US on August 11, 2017. All they had to do was line up at branches of Starbucks, where the pranksters hoped they would be met by US immigration offi cers. In volatile and unstable markets fake news has the greatest potential to wreak havoc. In June, a fabricated news story, also traceable to users of 4chan, claimed that Vi- talik Buterin, co-creator of cryptocurrency ethereum, had been killed in a car crash. Mr Buterin eventually posted a selfi e of himself to disprove the rumours, but by that point 20 per cent of ethereum's $4-billion market value had been wiped out. There is more potential than ever for companies to become implicated in the fake news cycle, both as its victim and as its colluder. Indeed, fake news is a thriving industry dancing on the edges of the so- called dark arts. With relative ease, and without having to visit the dark web, a company can employ a marketing agency to set up anonymous chatbots that will chirp endorsements of their brand through fake accounts on Twitter and YouTube. These services can cost as little as $7. to manipulate and create video footage, and perfectly match it to any audio recording. As fake news grows more pervasive and sophisticated, companies might be tempt- ed to test the limits of truth. Indeed, simple economics dictate that it is a lot easier to make things up than it is undertake reliable research, and it is a lot cheaper to produce fake news stories than it is to detect and re- pudiate them. But short-term gains will only be fol- lowed by long-term reputational costs. Instead, Gartner says, companies have a pressing responsibility to draw up a suita- ble code of digital ethics for their industry that should inform their public relations, marketing, product development and sales practices. At the same time, it would be in companies' best interests to train employ- ees to ensure they are inclined and skilled to discern the truth. Commercial enterprise should also col- laborate to quash the economic incen- tives that underpin the fake news market. Towards this end, social media sites and technology platforms such as Google, where fake news fl ourishes, could do more to pull their weight. The information company LexisNexis relies on data from multiple news sources to pro- vide its business-to-business customers with reliable data for legal, regulatory, research and reputation management purposes. Pim Stouten, director of strategy at LexisNexis Business Insight Solutions, explains that social media remains an opaque category. "Most social platforms know their data is quite the gold mine, so they are reluctant to give you access to the full dataset. You have to rely on them that you are getting a complete subset relevant to the research or analysis you are doing," he says. Get your ticket today at www.vibrantdigitalfuture.uk The future is unclear. Let our speakers bring it into focus. 31.01.18 in London. One Day. Three Tracks. Thirty Speakers. Kavita Kapoor micro:Bit Bunmi Durowoju Microsoft Jamie Woodruff Ethical Hacker Terence Eden Government Digital Service Fake news is a disturbing problem that destabilises democracy, social cohesion, public trust and the value of truth FAKE NEWS AND ENTERPRISE THWARTING THE TRICKSTERS OUT TO GET YOUR MONEY Phishing emails remain the main weapon used by hackers hiding in cyberspace 02 Cybercrooks are stealing computer space to "mine" for valuable bitcoins Will our behaviour online become the only security password we need? A new generation of quantum computing has the potential to transform security online HACKERS ARE AFTER PROCESSING POWER GHOSTS IN THE MACHINE KNOW WHO WE ARE QUANTUM COMPUTING AND CYBERSECURITY 04 05 07 C ommercial enterprises have a vested interest to protect the value of veracity and maintain consensus around truth. Yet, far from abating, most people in mature econ- omies will consume more fake news than truth through to 2022, according to re- search by technology consultancy Gartner. The rise of truth as a binding force in scientifi c, legal, political and commer- cial practice was a gradual and hard-won achievement, argues the journalist Mat- thew d'Ancona in his book Post-Truth: The New War on Truth and How to Fight Back. "Those who blithely assume that its threat- ened collapse in the political world will have no ramifi cations in the rest of civic society are in for a shock," Mr d'Ancona warns. Information plays such a huge part in the eff ective functioning of markets that they are particularly vulnerable to the ma- nipulation of truth for commercial gain. Gartner predicts that within the next two years a major fi nancial fraud will be caused by the spreading of highly believable false- hoods through fi nancial markets. "Trading on the stock market relies heav- ily on the automatic and high-speed con- sumption of content, parsing of sentiment in news stories, and application of algo- rithms," explains Magnus Revang, co-au- thor of the Gartner report. As companies increasingly demonstrate their civic values, they are vulnerable to SHARON THIRUCHELVAM IDENTIFYING FAKE NEWS US ADULTS WERE ASKED HOW CONFIDENT THEY ARE IN IDENTIFYING REAL NEWS FROM FAKE NEWS The Economist/YouGov 2017 Although this publication is funded through advertising and sponsorship, all editorial is without bias and sponsored features are clearly labelled. For an upcoming schedule, partnership inquiries or feedback, please call +44 (0)20 3877 3800 or email info@raconteur.net. Raconteur is a leading pub- lisher of special-interest content and research. Its publications and articles cover a wide range of topics, including business, fi nance, sustainability, healthcare, lifestyle and technology. Raconteur special reports are published exclusively in The Times and The Sunday Times as well as online at raconteur.net. The information contained in this publication has been obtained from sources the Proprietors believe to be correct. However, no legal liability can be accepted for any errors. No part of this publication may be reproduced without the prior consent of the Publisher. © Raconteur Media ADRIAN BRIDGWATER Specialist author on software engineering and application development, he is a regular contributor to Dr. Dobb's Journal and Computer Weekly. PÁDRAIG FLOYD Former editor in chief of the UK pensions and investment group at the Financial Times, and ex-editor of Pensions Management, he is now a freelance business writer. DAVE HOWELL Freelance journalist, writer and micro-publisher, he specialises in business and technology, and has written for a range of publications and websites. PUBLISHING MANAGER Jack Pepperell DIGITAL CONTENT EXECUTIVE Elise Ngobi DESIGN Samuele Motta Grant Chapman Kellie Jerrard PRODUCTION EDITOR Benjamin Chiou MANAGING EDITOR Peter Archer DISTRIBUTED IN RACONTEUR CONTRIBUTORS Similarly, a recent investigation by on- line magazine The Outline has found com- panies secretly paying journalists to write favourable articles about their brands on mainstream news websites such as Forbes, Fast Company and Huff Post, without the platforms' knowledge and without declar- ing the content as sponsored. Companies that advertise on discredited news sites not only fund the devaluation of legitimate news outlets, but they also under- mine their own brands. According to a poll by Thomson Reuters, 87 per cent of consumers agree it is damaging for a brand to advertise on a news site associated with a fake news sto- ry, while 57 per cent, rising to 60 per cent at di- rector level, say advertising on a trusted news site confers a more favourable impression. Mr Revang is pessimistic about the po- tential for artifi cial intelligence (AI) to eradicate the fake news problem. The more we employ increasingly sophisticated algo- rithms to identify fake news, the more this will inadvertently lead to the creation of evermore sophisticated forms of fake news. He says: "We are also not only training the AI to detect fake news, but also training people to create more believable fake news." Most fake news is made by individuals, with AI functioning as a content distribu- tor, not as a creator. This won't last long. According to Gartner, as early as 2020, AI will be able to generate sophisticated fake news that will outpace the ability of AI to detect it, driving an arms race in the weap- onisation of information. Gartner predicts that the AI-driven creation of a "counterfeit reality" will foment further digital distrust. This will include not only words and pictures, but also video. In July, computer scientists at the University of Wash- ington, using a form of AI called adversarial generative networks, proved they were able Fake news is a thriving industry dancing on the edges of the so- called dark arts /cyber-risk-resilience-2017 @raconteur /raconteur.net @raconteur_london Lies and chatbots are undermining commerce SHARON THIRUCHELVAM Writer specialising in culture and innovation, she has contributed to The Independent, i-D, Vice and Forbes. FINBARR TOESLAND Freelance journalist, he specialises in technology, business and economic issues, and contributes to a wide range of publications. DAVEY WINDER Award-winning journalist and author, he specialises in information security, contributing to Infosecurity magazine. Very confi dent 22% Somewhat confi dent 44% Not very confi dent 16% Not sure 13% Not at all Confi dent 5% AWARENESS OF FAKE NEWS REUTERS.COM USERS WERE POLLED ABOUT FAKE NEWS AND ITS IMPACT ON ADVERTISING ONLINE Thomson Reuters 2017 agree that it is damaging for a brand to advertise on a news site associated with a fake news story tend to trust well-known news brands and always check the accuracy of shared news from other sources 87% strongly agree they often turn to news brands they trust to verify the source of a breaking story said that trustworthy content is the number-one factor that makes online news brands appealing have a more favourable opinion of a brand if it advertises on a trusted news site 83% 74% 57% 57%

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