Total Recall – Surely any fan of the Governator (or any afficionado of surrealist science fiction movies for that matter) can “totally recall” (pun intended) the vast digital effects and imageries that this movie offered. Moreover, the same digitally-created enigmas are also part and parcel of the whole plot – just like the resulting denouement of Minority Report. How about Wag The Dog starring Dustin Hoffman wherein digital effects on a grand scale are spawned and exposed publicy (in the movie that is)?
There are many other examples we may think of – but one thing that sticks to the mind is the never-ending theme of the perceived reality that is really a fake, and the supposed bogus card-trick is really… the reality. Mind-boggling, really, because sometimes we may never know which is which.
And another mind-opening fact is, it just doesn’t happen in movies – it happens in real life via means which includes but are not limited to digital fraud or forgery. And this, ladies and gentlemen, is only a fraction of the possibilies which Gartner calls Counterfeit Reality.
According to Gartner, “Counterfeit reality is the digital creation or alteration of documents and media – is an escalating threat.”
And “When the unreal convinces people to accept that it is real, we have deception…., we will examine the course of computing technology and its impact on the ability to deceive – for good or for ill. We call it “counterfeit reality.””
A threat they say? Well, we can agree to that considering the present forms of hundreds of digital forgeries that are discovered on a daily basis. This includes many forms of phishing from the spoofed or fake emails that phishers send out with some of them even pointing to spoofed web sites of countless institutions such as banking, insurance and pre-need, educational and even the military and other government institutions. The fact is, the emails, email characteristics and even the fake web sites, down from the images to the content, used are convincingly real! And what’s more alarming is that the readily-available phishing kits and methods produced for these crime-wares shows ease-of-use… (We have another blog entry today by Joey that illustrates just this fact.)
Aside from phishing, the crimewares, scams and hoaxes, what else should we need to think about down the road regarding the landscape of Counterfeit Reality attacking the model of security for data confidentiality, integrity and availability?
Gartner predicts that counterfeit reality will account for at least one major media and political scandal by 2009.. Tomorrow’s counterfeit reality examples may account for “political attacks” and “personal privacy violations”.
2009?!… That is still a long way man!… But yes, still a long way… and we’ve still got time to prepare! Counterfeit Reality may account for a number of Targeted Attacks, especially those targeting customers of vast and huge basic institutions and services – and come to think of it – these are also Trend’s customers… Now’s about the time to once again propound another question – we are doing very well in protecting our customers’ data, systems, network and infrastracture…
Now, can we do something in protecting our customersthemselves?
Far-fetched? Perhaps… perhaps not… but nevertheless worthy of discussion.
Acknowledgement: Thanks to Mark Painter for the head’s up!
There are many other examples we may think of – but one thing that sticks to the mind is the never-ending theme of the perceived reality that is really a fake, and the supposed bogus card-trick is really… the reality. Mind-boggling, really, because sometimes we may never know which is which.
And another mind-opening fact is, it just doesn’t happen in movies – it happens in real life via means which includes but are not limited to digital fraud or forgery. And this, ladies and gentlemen, is only a fraction of the possibilies which Gartner calls Counterfeit Reality.
According to Gartner, “Counterfeit reality is the digital creation or alteration of documents and media – is an escalating threat.”
And “When the unreal convinces people to accept that it is real, we have deception…., we will examine the course of computing technology and its impact on the ability to deceive – for good or for ill. We call it “counterfeit reality.””
A threat they say? Well, we can agree to that considering the present forms of hundreds of digital forgeries that are discovered on a daily basis. This includes many forms of phishing from the spoofed or fake emails that phishers send out with some of them even pointing to spoofed web sites of countless institutions such as banking, insurance and pre-need, educational and even the military and other government institutions. The fact is, the emails, email characteristics and even the fake web sites, down from the images to the content, used are convincingly real! And what’s more alarming is that the readily-available phishing kits and methods produced for these crime-wares shows ease-of-use… (We have another blog entry today by Joey that illustrates just this fact.)
Aside from phishing, the crimewares, scams and hoaxes, what else should we need to think about down the road regarding the landscape of Counterfeit Reality attacking the model of security for data confidentiality, integrity and availability?
Gartner predicts that counterfeit reality will account for at least one major media and political scandal by 2009.. Tomorrow’s counterfeit reality examples may account for “political attacks” and “personal privacy violations”.
2009?!… That is still a long way man!… But yes, still a long way… and we’ve still got time to prepare! Counterfeit Reality may account for a number of Targeted Attacks, especially those targeting customers of vast and huge basic institutions and services – and come to think of it – these are also Trend’s customers… Now’s about the time to once again propound another question – we are doing very well in protecting our customers’ data, systems, network and infrastracture…
Now, can we do something in protecting our customersthemselves?
Far-fetched? Perhaps… perhaps not… but nevertheless worthy of discussion.
Acknowledgement: Thanks to Mark Painter for the head’s up!
Update (Ivan, 22 November 2005 17:52:38)
A good read regarding Counterfeit Reality can also be found here.
Some interesting snippets from the site:
“Counterfeit reality” is the dark side of digital-media production. Type in “fake pictures” in any Google search today, and you will find a cottage industry willing to alter any photo.
Awareness of the potential pitfalls of counterfeit reality should be elevated to the level that viruses and spam are today. This could be accomplished by compelling the top firms that develop counterfeit-reality technologies – Pixar, Disney, RealNetworks, Intel, Nvidia and others – to provide industry leadership.
Phony reality is here to stay, and it will grow dramatically. Too few of us recognize that the current laws are inadequate, and legal entities ignore the problem.
We need to begin educating consumers in how to protect themselves. More than anything, we need a comprehensive strategy to keep it from spiraling out of control.
We’ve all chuckled at an e-mail of friends with a top celebrity cropped into their photo, but one day, the laughing will stop. What we need to do is plan now for the not-too-distant future, when this technology might bring much more harmful results.
Some interesting snippets from the site:
“Counterfeit reality” is the dark side of digital-media production. Type in “fake pictures” in any Google search today, and you will find a cottage industry willing to alter any photo.
Awareness of the potential pitfalls of counterfeit reality should be elevated to the level that viruses and spam are today. This could be accomplished by compelling the top firms that develop counterfeit-reality technologies – Pixar, Disney, RealNetworks, Intel, Nvidia and others – to provide industry leadership.
Phony reality is here to stay, and it will grow dramatically. Too few of us recognize that the current laws are inadequate, and legal entities ignore the problem.
We need to begin educating consumers in how to protect themselves. More than anything, we need a comprehensive strategy to keep it from spiraling out of control.
We’ve all chuckled at an e-mail of friends with a top celebrity cropped into their photo, but one day, the laughing will stop. What we need to do is plan now for the not-too-distant future, when this technology might bring much more harmful results.