False News of White House Explosion Drops US Stock Market; Information Security Is Everybody's Business

On April 23, news regarding bombs hitting the White House and President Obama getting injured made the S&P 500 Index fall 14 points in just a few seconds. It also wiped out a market value of $136.5 billion. Within a few minutes, the stock index returned to the previous level. The news turned out to be false. The main Twitter account of the Associated Press had been hacked.

It is surprising that a piece of false news can cause such a big plunge in the market in such a short period of time. This once again underlines the fragility of information security in the network era. Controlling network information to some extent means controlling practical production. The issuance of false news triggers a vast number of high-speed computer deals, and great wealth can instantly evaporate.

The popularization and promotion of network technology greatly enhances operation efficiency. However, the vulnerability of information security in the Internet era is also much in evidence. New means of stealing information appear one after another. It is difficult to trace Internet crime back to its roots. The emergence of the mobile office to a large extent integrates an employee’s private and working life into the same device and platform. Traditional means for information security are stretched.

As the saying goes, “Three heads are better than one.” This is the expression of collective wisdom. However, the premise that collective wisdom exceeds individual wisdom requires ideas of group members to be diverse and be brought up independently. Statistics show that personal prejudices in a group can cancel each other out. Various kinds of individual thoughts will eventually become a unified, amazing “average answer.” The Internet is a multiplier platform of information dissemination. With the development of network technology, especially social networking sites, this multiplier’s doublings are increasingly expanding. Because of the constant growth of the platform amount, individual and public living continuously increase their degree of dependence on the Internet. As a result, the same news can be simultaneously transmitted to every corner of the world. Based on the latest research on collective intelligence in the era of Internet, if group members lack effective sharing of information and a necessary collision of thoughts, their “consensus” is unreliable, possessing even the ability to collectively deviate from the truth. The sensation stirred by the false news on the Associated Press’ Twitter account provides a fresh example.

Countermeasure technology on the Internet happens anytime, anyplace. It is characteristically “easy to attack but hard to hold.” Operation is difficult when a criminal organization or terrorists intends to issue harmful messages by controlling a traditional medium. Yet, technical difficulty will reduce considerably by utilizing new media such as Weibo.

It is hard to be absolutely safe on the Internet. It is essential to enhance the public’s information security awareness. While the government is strengthening Internet supervision, it needs to positively cultivate the public’s awareness of network security. Popularizing information security common sense will better help to share the responsibility of protecting cyberspace.

Information security is everyone’s responsibility.