A latest examine by Western Sydney College, Grownup Media Literacy in 2024, revealed worryingly low ranges of media literacy amongst Australians, significantly given the deepfake capabilities posted by newer AI applied sciences.
This deficiency poses an IT safety threat, on condition that human error stays the main explanation for safety breaches. As disinformation and deepfakes develop into more and more subtle, the necessity for a cohesive nationwide response is extra pressing than ever, the report famous.
As a result of AI can produce extremely convincing disinformation, the chance of human error turns into magnified. People who usually are not media literate usually tend to fall prey to such schemes, probably compromising delicate info or programs.
The rising risk of disinformation and deepfakes
Whereas AI presents plain advantages within the era and distribution of data, it additionally presents new challenges, together with disinformation and deepfakes that require excessive ranges of media literacy throughout the nation to mitigate.
Tanya Notley, an affiliate professor at Western Sydney College who was concerned within the Grownup Media Literacy report, defined that AI introduces some specific complexities to media literacy.
“It’s actually simply getting more durable and more durable to establish the place AI has been used,” she informed TechRepublic.
To beat these challenges, people should perceive tips on how to confirm the knowledge they see and tips on how to inform the distinction between a high quality supply and one prone to submit deepfakes.
Sadly, about 1 in 3 Australians (34%) report having “low confidence” of their media literacy. Training performs an element, as simply 1 in 4 (25%) Australians with a low stage of training reported having confidence in verifying info they discover on-line.
Why media literacy issues to cyber safety
The connection between media literacy and cyber safety won’t be instantly obvious, however it’s important. Latest analysis from Proofpoint discovered that 74% of CISOs think about human error to be the “most vital” vulnerability in organisations.
Low media literacy exacerbates this difficulty. When people can’t successfully assess the credibility of data, they develop into extra vulnerable to widespread cyber safety threats, together with phishing scams, social engineering, and different types of manipulation that instantly result in safety breaches.
An already notorious instance of this occurred in Could, when cybercriminals efficiently used a deepfake to impersonate the CFO of an engineering firm, Arup, to persuade an worker to switch $25 million to a collection of Hong Kong financial institution accounts.
The function of media literacy in nationwide safety
As Notley identified, bettering media literacy is not only a matter of training. It’s a nationwide safety crucial — significantly in Australia, a nation the place there’s already a cyber safety expertise scarcity.
“Specializing in one factor, which many individuals have, resembling regulation, is insufficient,” she stated. “We truly should have a multi-pronged method, and media literacy does quite a lot of various things. One in all which is to extend individuals’s data about how generative AI is getting used and tips on how to assume critically and ask questions on that.”
In line with Notley, this multi-pronged method ought to embody:
- Media literacy training: Instructional establishments and group organisations ought to implement sturdy media literacy applications that equip people with the talents to critically consider digital content material. This training ought to cowl not solely conventional media but additionally the nuances of AI-generated content material.
- Regulation and coverage: Governments should develop and implement rules that maintain digital platforms accountable for the content material they host. This consists of mandating transparency about AI-generated content material and guaranteeing that platforms take proactive measures to stop the unfold of disinformation.
- Public consciousness campaigns: Nationwide campaigns are wanted to boost consciousness in regards to the dangers related to low media literacy and the significance of being important shoppers of data. These campaigns ought to be designed to succeed in all demographics, together with those that are much less prone to be digitally literate.
- Business collaboration: The IT trade performs an important function in enhancing media literacy. By partnering with organisations such because the Australian Media Literacy Alliance, tech corporations can contribute to the event of instruments and assets that assist customers establish and resist disinformation.
- Coaching and training: Simply as first support and office security drills are thought-about important, with common updates to make sure that employees and the broader organisation are in compliance, media literacy ought to develop into a compulsory a part of worker coaching and commonly up to date because the panorama modifications.
How the IT trade can assist media literacy
The IT trade has a novel accountability to leverage media literacy as a core element of cybersecurity. By creating instruments that may detect and flag AI-generated content material, tech corporations will help customers navigate the digital panorama extra safely.
And as famous by the Proofpoint analysis, CISOs, whereas involved in regards to the threat of human error, are additionally bullish on the flexibility of AI-powered options and different applied sciences to mitigate human-centric dangers, highlighting that know-how might be the answer for the issue that know-how creates.
Nonetheless, it’s additionally essential to construct a tradition with out blame. One of many largest causes that human error is such a threat is that individuals typically really feel frightened to talk up for worry of punishment and even dropping their jobs.
In the end, one of many largest defences we’ve in opposition to misinformation is the free and assured change of data, and so the CISO and IT workforce ought to actively encourage individuals to talk up, flag content material that considerations them, and, in the event that they’re anxious that they’ve fallen for a deepfake, to report it immediately.