A recent investigation as part of a BBC 5 Live programme has led to the underground trade in fake online reviews coming under the spotlight.

What Reviews and Why Does It Matter?

The kinds of reviews of products and services that can allegedly be purchased and displayed online in order to influence purchasing decisions are reported to be those on sites such as Trustpilot and Amazon.

Three quarters of UK adults use online review websites, and the government’s Competition and Markets Authority estimates that such reviews potentially influence £23 billion of UK customer spending every year.

Younger consumers are thought to be particularly influenced by the reviews of others / their peers when it comes to purchasing decisions.

The key motivator for businesses buying fake reviews is, orf course, to rank top for your product because this can lead to a lot of extra sales.

How Bad Is The Problem?

A Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM) Study shows that almost half of UK adults believe they have seen fake reviews, and according to US analysts, as many as half of the reviews for some products posted on international websites like Amazon may be potentially unreliable

What’s Been Happening?

According to the recent BBC investigation of the problem, buyers are offered full refunds on products bought on Amazon in exchange for positive reviews. This practice is believed to be something that was driven underground back in 2016 after Amazon introduced measures designed to prohibit ‘incentivised reviews’ i.e. businesses offering customers free goods in exchange for positive reviews.

The BBC 5 Live team investigators have reported that they were offered deals for Amazon reviews, and were able to use eBay to purchase a false 5-star review on Trustpilot.
Denied

In response to the findings of the BBC investigation, Amazon has stated that it does not permit reviews in exchange for compensation of any kind and that customers and Marketplace sellers who don’t follow review guidelines are subject to action including potential termination of their account.

Trustpilot has said that it uses specialist software to screens reviews against 100’s of data points around the clock in order to automatically identify and remove fakes, and that it has a zero-tolerance policy towards any misuse.

E-bay has also stated that the sale of fake reviews is banned from its platform, and that any listings will be removed.

What Does This Mean For Your Business?

The potential rewards of more sales an profits, getting a competitive edge, and boosting brand awareness are powerful motivators for some businesses who may feel that when weighed up against the lack of any serious penalties, buying fake reviews may appear to be worth the risk. For the vast majority of review-reading customers, however, this is a deceptive practice that may cause them to purchase products that do not meet their needs or expectations.

The proliferation of fake reviews also undermines public trust in reviews, and this can be particularly unfair for those companies who have worked hard to get genuine positive reviews through simply providing superior products and service levels.

There is an argument that more preventative action needs to be taken by these platforms to stop fake reviews being published in the first place, and that stronger penalties are needed for those caught selling fake reviews.

Sadly, many commentators believe that we are currently in a ‘post-truth era’ where many people get their news from social media and where we are becoming conditioned to put less emphasis on the need for objective facts. It is with this backdrop that the trade in fake reviews has been allowed to grow.

There is still a strong argument, however, that there is no substitute for striving to provide quality products and great customer service as these strengthen a business anyway, ensure that reviews are positive, and should ultimately win over short-term deceptive practices.

A new report published by manufacturers’ organisation EEF in partnership with insurance firm AIG and the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) shows that 48% of UK manufacturers have been subject to a cyber-security incident at some time.

Loss and Disruption

Half of those manufacturing companies who admit to being hit by cyber-criminals have said that the incident(s) caused financial loss or disruption to business.

Challenges

The report highlighted several key challenges that the manufacturing industry faces in making itself less vulnerable to cyber-criminals. These challenges include:

• The age of equipment and the networked nature of production facilities. Many industrial systems are up to 20 years old and were developed before cyber threats became a big issue. As a result, poorly protected office systems, often the first implemented historically within manufacturing businesses, are particularly vulnerable. Also, a networked building, such as many manufacturing sites, can be hacked and exploited.
• Many manufacturing companies hold a large amount of classified information e.g. intellectual property (IP) and trade secrets, which makes them targets for (for example) financially motivated, state-sponsored hackers.
• Having no idea of the nature and size of the risks. 41% of manufacturing companies don’t believe they have access to enough information to assess their true cyber risk, and 12% of manufacturers admit they have no technical or managerial processes in place to even start assessing the real risk.
• A lack of basic detection that a cyber attack is taking place / has taken place, and a lack of investment in training i.e. 34% do not offer cyber-security training.
• Feeling that they are not equipped to tackle the risk anyway. For example, 45% are not confident they are prepared with the right tools for the job.
• A lack of confidence. Although 91% of the 170 UK manufacturing businesses polled are investing in digital technologies, 35% think that cyber vulnerability is inhibiting them from doing so fully.

What Does This Mean For Your Business?

For manufacturing businesses facing the very real threat of sophisticated, multi-level attacks, now is not the time to be left with a vulnerable outdated system. Advice from the report includes following the advice of the Government backed ‘Cyber Essentials’ scheme. This includes the 5 security essentials of using a firewall to secure your Internet connection, choosing the most secure settings for your devices and software, controlling who has access to your data and services, protecting yourself from viruses and other malware by using antivirus software, only downloading apps from manufacturer-approved stores, or running apps and programs in an isolated environment, and continually ensuring that operating systems and software are up-to-date and running the latest security patches.

Clearly, manufacturing companies with old systems may need to bite the bullet and invest in more modern, digitised, and well-protected systems. The report also indicates that greater investment in staff training is needed to help them spot and deal with risks, and to avoid the kind of human error that is needed in many modern cyber-attacks e.g. malware / viruses sent by email, phishing, and other social engineering attacks.

Another opportunity for manufacturing companies to boost cyber-security could also come from cyber-insurance. For example, many cyber insurers offer a comprehensive package of pre-loss services to businesses to carry out a cyber health check which could help to highlight gaps in cyber risk management and help identify what security measures should be prioritised.

GCHQ’s new director has revealed that last year, the UK has conducted a large-scale cyber-attack against ISIS that was designed to suppress online terrorist propaganda and hinder ISIS’s ability to coordinate attacks.

Growing For A Decade

Confirmation that the attack took place came as part of the first public speech by GCHQ’s new director and former MI5 agent, Jeremy Fleming. During his speech at the National Cyber Security Centre’s (NCSC) flagship event in Manchester, Mr Fleming said that the cyber attack is just the latest part in what have been GCHQ’s efforts to grow its online counterterrorism capabilities over more than a decade.

The outcomes of cyber attacks as weapons against any enemy can range from denying online services, disrupting a specific online activity, and deterring individuals or groups, to effectively destroying equipment and networks.

Degraded Infrastructure

The UK’s cyber-attack against ISIS is reported to have degraded the terror group’s online infrastructure, made a significant contribution to coalition efforts to suppress any Daesh propaganda, hindered the terror group’s ability to coordinate attacks, and provided more protection for coalition forces on the battlefield.

Over-Achievers

It seems that this latest big cyber-attack success is only the tip of the iceberg, as a report by Parliament’s Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC) has said that GCHQ spies had “over-achieved” in 2017, and that GCHQ had delivered on the first of three stages in its mission to bolster its cyber capabilities thanks to staging almost twice as many potential hacks than its targets.

Russia In The Spotlight

The recent deterioration of the relationship between the West and Russia means that its cyber-behaviour, as well as that of ISIS, is now reported to be more of a focus for GCHQ. In the director’s speech in Manchester, Mr Fleming said that the Russian state should be held accountable for what it does, and that the UK will continue to respond to malicious cyber-activity in conjunction with international partners such as the United States.

Helpful Tool

Another helpful tool that could be used to combat terrorist propaganda online could include the auto-blocker for extremist content that was mentioned by Home Secretary Amber Rudd. The tool, which Home Secretary Rudd would like to see adopted by ISPs can be configured to detect 94% of extremist video uploads.

What Does This Mean For Your Business?

It stands to reason that the UK is launching its own cyber-attacks against what it sees as legitimate targets elsewhere in the world. Cyber-attack and security capabilities are now being used worldwide to support military operations, damage enemy communications and infrastructure and thereby degrade the threat they pose, as well as protecting home infrastructure and vital networks.

Attacks by other states, criminal and terror groups e.g. hacks, DDoS attacks and viruses, can end up impacting many UK businesses, so its good to hear that GCQH, MI5 and other actors are ‘over-achieving’ in their efforts to protect the UK, and reduce the threats that we face in a time of shifting geopolitical and technological landscapes. We can assume, therefore, that the successful actions of our security agencies must be indirectly protecting many of the interests of UK businesses.

Microsoft has announced a set of business security tools, including a phishing attack simulator, that make it easier and more affordable for businesses to identify and fix vulnerabilities before they become an issue.

Attack Simulator

One of the key tools announced to coincide with the annual RSA conference in San Francisco, is the Attack Simulator. This tool is included in Office 365 Threat Intelligence, and is currently still in preview.

Spear Phishing Simulator

The tool, which simulates display name spear-phishing attacks, password-spray attacks, and brute-force password attacks, enables businesses to determine how end users behave in the event of an attack, and update policies to ensure that appropriate security tools are in place to protect the organization from threats.

A spear-phishing attack, for example, is used to gain access to users’ credentials or financial information, and often involves sending emails, purporting to be from a person of influence in an organisation to other users. The Microsoft attack simulator tool applies machine learning models and impersonation detection algorithms to incoming email messages. The AI system is trained to detect phishing messages. It also uses algorithms to protect against various user and domain impersonation attacks.

Intelligent Security Graph

Microsoft credits its ‘Intelligent Security Graph’ as being the ‘central nervous system’ that is at the heart of its tools for tracking and mitigation of attacks across platforms and services. This combines AI with data gained from analyzing web pages, emails and malware threats on Windows 10 and the cloud. This enables Microsoft to warn users of existing and new threats.

Only Access SaaS Service If Your Device Is Healthy

Another important development of Office 365’s Conditional Access service is an update (currently in preview) which combines Conditional Access Information with data from the Windows Defender Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) security scanner to ensure that a user can only access a given SaaS service if their device is healthy.

Security Score

A potentially important new tool that Microsoft has developed for IT admins is an expanded version of the Office 365 Secure Score tool, which gives a single measure for evaluating the risk profile across Office 365 service and their users’ devices.

What Does This Mean For Your Business?

For many businesses e.g. SMEs, up-to-date cyber attack simulators would be beyond their resources. These new tools from Microsoft have been ‘trained’ thanks to AI and real-world analysis via Windows 10, thereby making them an affordable, accessible, and hopefully effective and welcome addition to the security options that businesses have at their disposal.

There is no doubt that human / employee error is at the heart of many successful cyber-attacks. With a phishing attack simulator that allows the creation of a fake phishing email, companies can see, for example, which employees fall for them, and this could serve as a way of identifying who needs extra security extra security training.

The combination of these new tools from Microsoft could provide an effective way that companies of all sizes could take proactive measures to plug gaps in their cyber-security shield, and guard against the kind of breaches that could be expensive and damaging, especially with the introduction of GDPR.