Showing posts with label Social Media. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Social Media. Show all posts

Monday, January 5, 2015

OPINION: The Impact of Bias & Politics In Security



Originally, I wanted to make this an “open letter” to my fellow Americans about the current state of security. I was going to lecture us for engaging in pointless arguments and conjecture regarding where to place the blame for our security failings and who deserved credit for our success. However, this will not be an “open letter”, though; I will address these issues in this post. That’s right. I’m probably going to offend a few of you. Stick around because you’ll soon discover I’ll offend someone you don’t like. So let’s begin.

There seems to be an incessant desire to inject our personal political beliefs into how we view security. This used to occur only in the domain of national security. Here it was more acceptable, expected, and understandable than in others. In 2014, we saw a dramatic shift in this paradigm. The injection of politics has occurred throughout the spectra of security. Hacks on corporations have occurred in the name of political differences and responsibility assigned (accurately or inaccurately) based on them as well. Even areas thought immune to politics such as personnel security saw this as well. Discourse diluted to regurgitation of talking points. Experts emerged with little to any relative experience or extensive security knowledge but gained popularity because of which side they seemed to agree with. Accusations were cast as fact with little to corroborate them other than innuendo and insinuation from less-than-objective sources.

Today, the discussions of security have become little more than massive pep rallies and virtual lynch mobs. As professionals and practitioners, we rely on credible and objective evidence-based analysis to make informed decisions for our clients. Yet, the current discourse has been infected with vitriol and far-from-honest portrayals. In order to correct our course, we must examine what is occurring and how we can change.
  1. What happened to having conversations? This is a question I find myself posing quite a bit on social media these days. The dialogues people are having with one another about things in security have been destructive, short on content, and full of conjecture. Twitter is the perfect place to watch this devolution. People shout and angrily dismiss opinions they don’t agree with, in an effort to assert expertise rather than collaborative learning. I don’t pretend to have all of the answers and so I use Twitter and other mediums as a means of learning more. Yet, so many people don’t want to learn. They’d rather spend their time proving you wrong rather than hearing your perspective. In certain cases, I get this. Some ideas are flatly wrong or just an attempt to “troll”. Therein lays our greatest weapon in bringing back sound intellectual discourse – choice. We can always choose to ignore opinions that are not in the interests of learning and sharing knowledge. Yet, we don’t but we need to.
  2. We seem to like to state our bias but pretend as though it doesn’t matter. Facts are facts but our bias has a great deal of influence on our analysis of those facts. The worse offense we make is allowing our bias to form our opinions. On social media, I have seen a great many of profiles with biographies full of stated or implied bias. Not surprisingly, I find many of these accounts and their timelines to be absent of manipulated or inaccurate facts and vitriolic opinions. When challenged, these accounts retort how much they don’t care that influences them, how the “other side” does it too, and how the challenger’s facts are wrong or formed from the “mainstream media”. Miraculously, these accounts don’t see how this very analysis is influenced by theirs.We all have a bias. We can’t escape it nor should we. That being said, it is incumbent upon us to realize our bias and understand how it influences our analysis and our subsequent opinions. For example, if you don’t know anyone who owns a firearm and never touched a gun before but hold very anti-gun opinions after a friend was shot, it may be prudent to understand how your lack of exposure and the tragic event of losing a friend could have an impact on your opinions about guns. This doesn’t mean you’re wrong but it certainly pays dividends to understand.
  3. The labels we give people have a tremendous impact on the level of discourse and engagement we seek to have. Come on. Let’s not pretend we don’t know what RWNJ (right wing nutjob), Libtard, Democraps, SJW (social justice warrior), gun nut, thug, un-patriotic, Obummer, and others mean. These are the “nice” labels. Have you ever had someone call you “stupid” after you articulate a point and thought you were going to be taken seriously? Have you ever called someone “stupid” after they made their initial point and expected them to take your argument seriously? No. That’s not how constructive discourse works. We use these labels in order to dismiss people’s arguments because we either fear taking them seriously or we don’t want to listen to them. In some cases, I get this. I do. I get trolled at times and I find it easy (though I resist) to troll back.

    If we’re truly interested in having meaningful discussions and want people to take us and our ideas seriously, perhaps we should drop the labels. Our forefathers often engaged in heated debates with another about various topics. However, they recognized their greatest vulnerability rested in their greatest weapon – their ability to compromise. Consensus and commitment can’t occur when you’re busy tearing people (instead of their bad arguments) down. By tearing down our neighbors, our enemies find new allies to defeat us. If there is one lesson we’ve learned this year, it’s that the insider can have the greatest impact.
  4. Stop using tragedy to assert your political commentary. There are few things that rub me wrong than this. I have been on Twitter for little over three years and in that time; I have witnessed countless tragedies as they were happening. With each crisis, there are new experts vying for their voice to be heard among the ever-growing field. During the initial days of the Ferguson riots, I was called upon to give my opinions. It was an experience I will never forget and it gave me valuable insight into how politics with its own agenda shapes much of the dialogue in security. Good or bad, there are a host of issues which impact security and law enforcement which wouldn’t drive as much discussion if it were not for politics.
    That being said, I find a great many of “experts” use social media and the settings of tragic events as platforms to inject their personal political allegiance and ambitions in to their “objective” analysis of security issues. Nowhere has this been more apparent and to our detriment than in the recent spate of officer-involved-shootings. There are a host of instances where “experts” have used incomplete, manufactured, outdated, or demonstrative data from corollary events in an effort to support their biased and politically-based opinions. Nowhere but in our current media paradigm do we see and accept this so blindly.
  5. In a world where events don’t matter unless they “go viral” or cause our clients embarrassment, it is strange how we ignore the impact this has on both how information is given and received and why. Even stranger is how we ignore how that happens. Today, you can’t visit a news story and not see a button to like or share the content with others. News organizations no longer make their money off of consumers but advertisers. Ads are custom-delivered to us based on our reactions to various news articles. Many times, we don’t see a story unless it’s “trending”. So if we’re only seeing things based on our reactions to them and it’s solely crafted in its current form to create an emotional response, then why ignore the influence this has on our discussions about these stories?
Perhaps, when we care more about how we receive and present information, we’ll make more informed decisions regarding the issues surrounding our industry. We may even see a high-return in a public that takes us more seriously and understands the mental acuity required to understand the threat, our risks, and vulnerabilities. When we get back to having meaningful and constructive discourse founded on information meant to inform and not persuade, we’ll do more than prattle about who should be our political party of choice.

Saturday, July 5, 2014

INFOGRAPH: What Happens to A Social Media When The User Dies


Source: http://kupeesh.com/social/even-friends-wont-miss-facebook-plans-eulogize-die/

In my current occupation, as an investigator, most of my day is spent on social media. Much of that time is used figuring out who the account belongs to in order to make contact with the user for a case I'm working on. In security, we're often monitoring social media to gain some insight on kinetic events in our areas of operation. In either case, we run the risk of finding out the users of theses accounts being dead with little information given as to who may be using the account in their stead. I found this infograph here and sharing it on this space to help other practitioners.


Monday, June 23, 2014

OPINION: 10 Simple Rules Every Security Professional On Social Media Should Think About

Social  media can be a great thing at times. It can connect you with other professionals, allow you to sound off on things in our industry, advertise your services, and even give you new insight into security matters. However, it can also be a very dangerous tool. Countless times, I've seen security professionals realize this inherent truth much too late. In every social interaction, there is an implied trust with our fellow netizens they will abide by certain unspoken "rules". Often, they do but more than often, they do not. I'd like to share a few rules that can help mitigate the risks associated with combining your personal and professional social media personas.
  1. Be humble and listen to everyone's opinion. There seems to be a rash of security professionals who believe the best way to interact with those who disagree with them is to be brash and rude regardless of the interaction. Sometimes, it calls for being a bit brash and rude. However, I find it often does not. Don't make being adversarial a part of who you are on social media. You could potential "scare away" potential clients or employers. Don't be "that" guy. Seriously. If you don't want discourse, then social media is not the place for you. Chances are just because you're awesome in what you know doesn't mean you're awesome in all things you claim to know. Sometimes, other folks have legit ideas we can learn from. You don't always have to be right. A simple "I never thought of it that way" goes a long way.
  2. Keep your "circle" small. A while back, I went to "private" on all of my social media accounts. Why? Am I talking secret stuff I don't want others to know? No. I just realized how much better my social media experience is by keeping my audience relatively small. Think of it like how you rate schools based on student-to-teacher ratios. Do you really want to have to interact with 90,000 people you don't know? Also, by keeping your "circle" small, you pick the people you want to interact with. There's a danger here, though. By being selective, you run the risk of limiting the amount of data you receive and it can enable subjectivity to some extent. With that being said, I'll add my next rule.
  3. Interact with people who provide value and not an ego boost. When I went "private", I noticed I was far more selective and I tended to interact with people who "liked" my comments less and interacted more. There's a trap by having loads of people "like" everything you post. It can lull you into a false sense of security that you're a "big deal" and immune to legitimate criticism. Remember, this is the Internet. Just because you say awesome things does not mean people think you're awesome. You will make people upset sometimes. That's life. Some attacks will be personal. That is also life. Deal with it. My mother provided me with the best sage advice I've ever heard and will never forget - "Not everyone that smiles at you is your friend and not everyone who frowns at you is your enemy."
  4. Don't say or do anything on social media you can't tell your mother or boss about. Seriously, you can limit half the drama that comes your way by just abiding by this simple rule. More professionals get involved in more drama online than they should because they forgot this. What does this mean? Don't write checks with your status updates your career and personal life can't cash.
  5. Keep it real. I've written in the past about "experts" and how often it is easy to confuse real expertise with implied expertise. If you're really knowledgeable about something, feel free to talk about it like you do. If you're not, then take it easy and try to "stay in your lane". Many people find themselves in trouble when they forget to do this. Why? Everyone wants to be popular on social media and you don't get to be popular by staying in your lane all the time. Remember what I said about getting too many followers and "likes". Again, don't be "that" guy. When I'm talking to people on social media, I try my hardest to be upfront about what I know based on my experiences and from other sources. If you follow me on social media, you'll often read me telling people what's in my lane and what is not. I find when I do that, I receive much better interaction with professionals and I learn quite a bit more than I preach.
  6. Don't make your social media persona to be something you are not.  The downfall of many professionals on social media can be traced back to forgetting this rule. Quite a few security practitioners seem to believe in order to have value, they have to inflate who they are or what they've done in the past. More often than not, they're found out and revealed without prejudice. You don't have to fake a degree or have an awesome job title to provide value in your social media interactions. I'm more impressed by a person who is totally honest about being a janitor and knows a lot on a topic versus a janitor who pretends to be an "expert" security "guru. As I always say, "Game recognizes game."
  7. Use your manners. My advice to son is always, "I get more from pleases and thank-yous than I have ever gotten with a frown on my face." A simple "Thank you for the discourse" or an apologetic private message for an overly snippy comment has provided me with more value than my stubborness to concede a point ever has. With that in mind, as with everywhere you go in life, there will always be jerks. Try not to be one of them if you don't have to. Sometimes, a situation online may call for you to be one. I suggest resisting the temptation to do so and simply either ignore the other party or "block" them. This is the Internet and there are tools available wherein you can choose to be a jerk or not. At one point, my mother was a preacher's wife which is position replete with jealousy. She always told me, after an encounter with someone who she knew didn't like her, "Baby, sometimes, you gotta kill them with kindness."
  8. Some things are better said in-person. This is too easy to explain. Keep private things as private as you can because once it leaves your computer, you have lost complete control of it. If I'm in charge of human resources at a company you applied to or I'm a prospective client and I noticed your social media accounts are chock full of indiscretion, you're probably not a person I want to hire and for good reason. Whatever your intent was will not matter to someone who decides your fate with the click of button without having to ever talk to you.
  9. Never trust people to keep things private online. Salient advice I received from a friend once - "This is the Internet, nothing is as it appears." People are inherently untrustworthy. Why? Because they can always make disadvantageous decisions regarding you online without your knowledge and consent. There is very little you can do about this except following this rule. As the old adage from hip-hop goes, "Never trust a big butt and a smile."
  10. You don't have to be first to speak during a crisis to have value. The first time I became popular on social media was during Christopher Dorner's rampage through Los Angeles. I made a few points which were re-shared a lot. After that, it seemed like every other crisis, I was being called on to give my opinion. Not too long after that, I did some introspective thinking and realized I was being wasn't always being called on to give my opinion or insight - I was seeking it out. I had fallen into the trap. Why is this bad? The reason I took the time to think on this topic was I noticed I was sharing incorrect and highly subjective information. In other words, I was misinforming people. My "circle" was kind and quietly called me on some of it. Here's what I learned: Being first, often, means being first with the wrong information and relying on firsthand accounts. Anyone involved in the intelligence community will tell you how this leads to a degradation of analysis and eventual disregard of the analyst responsible. Take your time and give your insight when it's helpful.

Thursday, May 23, 2013

INFOGRAPHIC: Pew Institute Poll - Sharing, Connections, & Privacy In The World Of Teen Social Media

This infographic from the Pew Institute provides some amazing insight into how teens view their social media privacy. As an investigator, I can share with you the value that social media has in gathering information on a person. Teens have historically been the most active users of social media and therefore their online "lives" traditionally have been insightful to say the least.

                      (click to enlarge)

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