Trolls taking over: upday UK’s tech recap
Russia, Brexit and Twitter – these are three topics I inadvertently write about a lot in this column. And this week’s bombshell tech story includes all of them. Here’s what happened…
Troll factories
After reports that Russian hackers meddled with the 2016 US presidential election, it emerged this week that the UK was on their hit list too.
Researchers at the University of Edinburgh have identified 419 accounts that are believed to have been actively tweeting about Brexit in order to influence the outcome of the election.
Researchers found that accounts run from a St Petersburg troll farm tried to sow discord between Britons over the referendum.
But their Twitter intervention didn’t stop after the Brexit vote.
Remember this tweet that was circulating after the Westminster attack?
This account is a part of a Kremlin-linked operation. Their aim was to stir anti-Islamic sentiment among Brits by posting a bogus claim that a Muslim woman ignored Westminster victims.
Russian troll farms aren’t new. Back in 2015, the Guardian published an investigation into an operation where bloggers were paid to flood forums and social networks with a particular sentiment.
Now the Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC) is set to hear evidence on Russian interference in the EU referendum. The evidence will be considered behind closed doors, but here’s what we know about the formal investigation.
Global issue
“Fake news” isn’t just an American or British problem. Votes in at least 18 countries were hacked in the last year. In a report by Freedom House, it emerged that at least 30 governments were actively engaged in using social media to stifle dissent.
ToysRHacked
It’s not just our elections that are getting hacked. Many of this Christmas’ most popular children’s toys are vulnerable to hacking too, a consumer watchdog has found.
Spoiler alert: Furby Connect and CloudPets are on that list.
“Please wait for assistance”
That moment when you’ve picked out a nice bottle of wine but you get to the self-service checkout to realise you don’t have an ID…
A new facial recognition technology may replace age checks at grocery stores. Under a pilot program being run by an app called Yoti, checkouts will confirm the user’s age by scanning the shopper’s face to confirm their identity. It would enable shops to check the age of customers buying restricted products such as alcohol and knives, without human intervention.
If the trial is successful, this would remove a major bottleneck at self-service tills. So you’ll be able to hurry home and enjoy your bottle of wine even quicker.
Hi, ASL?
Thought your mates took too long to text back to you? We’ve just sent a message to our alien buddies, and if we’re lucky, they’ll get back to us in about 25 years.
Meti have sent a message to aliens which was “designed with extraterrestrial SETI scientists in mind”. It includes pieces of music, math and technology.
The message was sent to a star which is just over 12 light-years away.
Hope to hear from you soon, pals!
