What Info Security Pros Think About Fake News

Fake news sources are manipulating U.S. politics, and it's virtually impossible to stanch the flow of bogus reports. That's the opinion of most cyber-security experts and industry thought leaders who participated in a survey at the Black Hat 2017 security conference. In the study, conducted by DomainTools, a significant minority of security professionals admitted to being influenced by fake news reports. But the problem of fake news is a thorny one to tackle. Nearly three out of four respondents believe nothing can prevent the creation and distribution of fake news. However, they believe social media sites, security teams and the government can take steps to filter out fake news and shut down the websites responsible. "InfoSec folks tend to have traits of healthy skepticism and pragmatism, and those are reflected here," said Tim Helming, director of product management for DomainTools. "They recognize that a lot of news generated today is of dubious origin, but see education, filters and blacklists as ways to mitigate that." In addition, the survey addressed the likelihood of cyber-attacks. More than half the experts polled expect an attack on the U.S. infrastructure within the next two years, with likely targets including the power grid and telecommunications network, among others. The job of defending the enterprise is a joint responsibility of the security and executive teams, as well as employees, according to many respondents. The survey included C-level executives, directors, managers, researchers and analysts, who are equally distributed between small and large companies.