In cybersecurity, Zero Trust is the rule that no source gets a free pass—you don’t trust the email; you verify the sender. That same principle is no longer just for IT departments; it’s now essential for anyone scrolling through a newsfeed.
Zero Trust in Cyber Security
A friend once received an email appearing to come from me, recommending a product. The name on the account was mine, but the actual address wasn’t. Fortunately, he called to verify before buying anything.
I got an email this morning with a sad story and a request that I send free books. I’ve donated hundreds of books. But something looked off. I checked it carefully, and found substantial evidence that it was a scam. People get donated books and then offer them for sale online. They may get few responses, but any books they sell are pretty much pure profit.
A client of mine–well, numerous clients–receives a phone call purporting to be from their bank. It’s not. It’s from someone planning to steal from them.
I teach people that it’s important never to trust that the caller or the email sender or even the person who comes to your door is who they claim to be. Always verify. Failure can mean substantial loss.
A Dangerous Experiment
Over the last couple of weeks I did an experiment. I started scrolling more in social media. Not directed search for topics of interest, but just following the feed. “Doomscrolling” is the term, I believe.
I wondered if somewhere out there, a hidden wealth of joy and wisdom was waiting for me.
No. I didn’t actually expect that. I just wanted to verify.
And I found precisely what I expected, for the most part. I actually found a couple of feeds, such as someone who comments on court cases, that provided good, well-sourced information complete with context. But I didn’t find that many.
I also found numerous feeds that simply created news with no basis in fact at all. They provided nicely formatted news stories that could easily persuade one that they were created by a professional journalist. In fact, they may have been created by such a journalist.
I found a few commentary and analysis feeds that provided useful analysis of verifiable news. I know. I looked up the facts on which they based their analysis up and found good sources. I also found completely wasted words analyzing falsehoods in detail.
I must note that I also found a number of feeds with fun stuff, cat pictures/videos, dog pictures/videos, positive stories of human activity. Well, on this latter one I must note that I found many feeds, and only a few of them were not engaged in scamming themselves. Once you notice it’s easy to spot the fakes. They have long, heart-wrenching stories that totally defy all probability and have a link embedded near the end. But there were a few genuine posts around.
I also found that the “doom” in “doomscrolling” is real. This stuff is depressing. It’s also addictive. Both of these points I expected, but I really didn’t expect as much as what I found. It’s a depressing world out there and social media will feed it to you as fast as you’ll take it in.
And the Result?
In the end I learned the lesson I had already learned before I took this vacation from sanity: Zero trust is useful in social media and news services just as it is in security.
More precisely, I’d say this: Take control of your input, what you feed your brain. Choose what you’re going to read. Choose what you’re going to think about. Vigilantly test your sources.
Older people may be thinking, “Yes, that’s good advice for all these young people wasting their time on social media.”
But this advice isn’t just for younger people scrolling on smartphones. You can “doomwatch” television just as easily. You can absorb sensationalism and half-truths from the evening news if you let TV editors decide what matters.
Zero trust may sound negative. It is not. It is a positive decision to think, to check, and to decide, and not be a passive consumer of any source.
You’re the gatekeeper.