Common Sense

Last week Saturday was a mad rush. I was up early to cook lunch and supper before I left the house at 10:30am. I was on my way to be interviewed by Dr Marilyn Saunders, psychologist.

She is busy finishing up the last chapters of a book she is writing and she wanted to up her presence on social media with a few short clips before the book is released.

The original request was for me to talk on law and I had to gracefully decline because I no longer practice law.

I quickly enough offered to be interviewed on the topic of social media etiquette. One of her 1st questions was why? Why would I want to speak on that?

The answer is quite simple. When you buy an appliance, there’s always a set of instructions included on how to use it. How to trouble shoot common problems. When you buy a dress or a suit or even a tee-shirt, there is a 'wash care' label attached, telling you how to get the best wear out of it. Handwash only. Do not dry clean.

When social media platforms entered our lives, there were no guidelines on how to use it or what the consequences were of providing personal or financial details. Laws were still being written on how to govern the creators of the apps, websites and technologies that drove social media. Laws were at that time, also still being written on how to protect the people who used social media.

Artificial intelligence and Generative AI hit our lives and laws have yet to be written to govern this new giant.

On February 20th, the House of Lords in London hosted the first World Forum Meeting of the Global Council for Generative AI. The gathering began with a pledge by the Global Ambassadors and Responsible AI Governors, committing to uphold the highest ethical standards in AI innovation. 64 countries were represented. It is serious business!

There are hundreds of definitions to grapple with, even more loopholes and if you are 1 lonely voice against a giant tech company, protesting how things are done, well let’s just say we have a real life David and Goliath war on hand.

When I’m not fancying myself a writer or author, my day job involves training people on information security and cyber security. We often get emails from staff and one staff member deserves recognition. He had received a weird email and he forwarded it to us to say, “I saw this email and it looked off so using my common sense, I didn't click on any links and I’m sending it to you guys to look at.”

That is the premise on how to deal with social media. Common sense. Now that may come across as an insult. I’m not even going to apologise if you do feel insulted. We use common sense while driving, shopping, at work, in restaurants, at social events and even while running our homes and dealing with our families and pets. We must use common sense to do life right?

Why do we think differently when it comes to social media?

The sad answer is that a lot of social media evokes ugly emotions in us. The emotions we don’t want to admit we can feel. The ugly emotions often have us behaving out of character. Behaving without common sense. The big emotions override your ability to apply logical, coherent thinking.

This is the very thing that a cybercriminal will want to exploit. Your emotions.

Oh, of course they will always try to bypass security technologies. They will always try to hack a technology to get valuable information or get into a position of control.

The easier target to hack, is you and I.

More specifically, the emotions that make us vulnerable.

1. Guilt

You have unpaid traffic fines, you owe money to SARS, you infringed a copyright law with your post. Many of us cannot bear the thought that we have somehow contravened a law and the guilt is what drives us to click on links and provide personal information and rectify what we feel guilty about. I am ethical, I have morals, I am a law abiding citizen. Indignation that if someone found out, they would perceive me to be a scoundrel. Big emotions of guilt. Let me click on the link to quickly fix this.

2. Concern

If you thought a family member was in trouble, the need to protect them surfaces and that’s how you fall victim to a scam. Your moms medical bills are due, if it’s not paid she will be kicked out of the care facility. Your child’s school was flooded, click on the link to view updates on the safety of the kids. Your family member has been arrested, immediate bail payment is needed.

Concern will prompt you to click on a link.

3. Fear

Sextortion is one of the scams thats on the increase today. Fear that information about you was going to be made public, even if you know that alleged information is untrue. Fear about reputational damage. Fear of what family, friends and colleagues might think.

Please check out this really informative article by the very knowledgeable Anna Collard.

https://www.annacollard.com/post/financial-sextortion-101-quick-help-and-resources

4. Love

We are wired to want and give love.

Dating scams have staggering statistics and it's growing daily. Once you have become involved in a ‘love’ relationship, it becomes easier for cybercriminals to move to the next step, which is requests for money. It is also often common for 1 half of the so called couple to be used as a middle man for other crimes.

5. Admiration

We all have heroes, whether it’s artists, actors, sports stars or authors. Add to that global leaders, politicians and religious leaders. The good feeling emotion that someone famous or a person of influence had reached out to you can cause you to suppress any suspicions you have over such interactions.

6. Shame

Threats of exposing things you did as a teen, old unflattering photo’s, old posts that expose views that you no longer hold. Feelings of shame can make you vulnerable to being exploited.

7. Greed

Who can resist a well timed offer for Valentines Day or Mothers day? A never to be repeated special on tech gadgets or tickets to see your favourite artist perform! The get rich quick scams. Once you part with your money, you most likely will never get the offer that was promised.

Commons scams to trigger your emotions are online shopping, dating, bank or financial services, impersonations and employment offers.

I was scammed. I fell for a Le Crueset scam. Makes me sound stupid. As if I was I was the wrong doer. As if it was somehow my fault. As if I should be ashamed. Not that someone cleverly analysed my online shopping behaviour. They crafted an offer that appealed to me. That it came at a time when I was tired and needing a pick-me-up. It looked extremely real and I only realised something was up as I entered the last digit on my credit card and clicked ‘buy’. (Fortunately, I bank with a great bank and got my money back!).

Had I used my common sense, I would have noticed the wonky logo, the misspelling and the fact that in a million years, a whole set of Le Creuset pots would never have been that cheap.

Emotion hacked? Greed.

The narrative that needs to change is that falling victim to such scams is your fault.

If someone assaulted you, you would not say, “I fell for an assault.” You were assaulted. You were the victim.

If your car was stolen, no-one would say, “Hey you fell for car theft.” No. You were a victim of a cleverly crafted crime.

The same applies here. You fell victim to a cyber crime. You fell victim to clever and manipulative orchestrations. You were a victim of a network of devious folks whose job it is to gather information about unsuspecting people and use it for their own nefarious plans.

To make it less possible to become a victim, I will repeat what the clever guy in that email said. Use your common sense. 3 deep breaths is all it takes to calm or suppress an emotional response. After 3 deep breaths, your common sense kicks in.

It is your super power.