Microsoft’s Social media platform LinkedIn has announced the introduction of new security features to help verify, identity, detect, and remove fake accounts, all aimed at boosting authenticity.

Problem With Fake Accounts 

Back in April, researchers from the Stanford Internet Observatory reported finding more than one thousand fake ‘virtual’ employees with AI-generated faces on the LinkedIn platform. In August, the CEO of cryptocurrency exchange Binance tweeted that “LinkedIn has 7000 profiles of ‘Binance employees’, of which only 50 or so are real.” In June, it was reported that even the FBI was concerned about it and was investigating the threat caused by the fraudulent cryptocurrency investment schemes on LinkedIn.

All this appeared to prompt a report back in June by LinkedIn’s Vice President of Product Management, Oscar Rodriguez, of a rise in fraudulent activity. At the time, although Mr Rodruguez assured users that a combination of AI and LinkedIn’s security experts could stop 96 per cent of detected fake accounts and 99.1 per cent of detected spam and scams before they went live, he also urged users to report any activity that they suspected was a scam, and to be careful who they connected with.

New Security Measures 

LinkedIn’s latest announcement highlights new security features designed to tackle fake profiles and scammers on the platform. The social media company says the new features and systems will help users “make more informed decisions” about members they interact with and enhance the “automated systems that keep inauthentic profiles and activity off our platform.” 

The new features are:

– The ‘About this profile’ feature which shows users when a profile was created and last updated, along with whether the member has verified a phone number and/or work email associated with their account.

– A new ‘deep-learning-based model’ to check profile photo uploads to determine if an image is AI-generated and to enable the detection and removal of fake accounts.

– The addition of a warning to some LinkedIn messages that include high-risk content to help protect users from falling victim to scams on the platform.

When? 

Although LinkedIn hasn’t given an exact date for the introduction of these new features it has said that they will be tested and rolled out globally over the next few weeks.

What Does This Mean For Your Business? 

Reports were mounting earlier this year that LinkedIn appeared to be getting overrun with fake accounts, some of them now “deepfakes” and users were facing the threat of being targeted by scammers. Also, the platform was getting some unwelcome publicity about it, with even the FBI reportedly investigating. With LinkedIn focusing on businesses and making its money from advertising, recruitment services, and membership privileges, this was clearly potentially damaging to the platform’s reputation and revenue. It is not surprising, therefore, that LinkedIn made an announcement in June to re-assure users, and has now announced the introduction of these new features, specifically designed to tackle fake profiles and their associated scams.

A recent Uswitch.com study has concluded that 5G connectivity has been overhyped, with many users yet to experience any real improvements in mobile speed or reliability.

Overstated 

The study found that:

– One in six mobile users felt the power of 5G technology had been overstated.

– Less than half of those surveyed said they had seen any noticeable speed or reliability improvements since upgrading.

– There is a divide between urban and rural areas. For example, 17 per cent of those in the countryside said they had never been able to connect to a 5G network (three times as many as those in cities).

– There are large regional variations, with some parts of the UK struggling for other signals too. For example, in Yorkshire, only 48 per cent of residents said they receive a reliable 4G service, and 14 per cent said they often had to use a 1990s-style 2G network.

What Are The Benefits Supposed To Be? 

5G (fifth generation) connectivity, the successor to 4G, uses 3 different spectrum bands instead of just the low-band spectrum or LTE used by most carriers. 5G should be up to 20 times faster than the current 4G technology can provide, i.e. 20Gbps for 5G compared to 1Gps for 4G. The benefits 5G is supposed to offer include faster speeds and less latency. In theory, this should mean big improvements in broadband (particularly commercial), ultrafast speeds to mobiles and an end to slowdowns during busy times of day that have been experienced due to the overcrowding of the current limited LTE.

Why Isn’t It Happening? 

In reality, as highlighted by a recent Ofcom study, the UK’s current average 4G speeds are well below 1Gps, with many customers experiencing average speeds of 20Mbps. In Uswitch’s own test, although 5G compared favourably against 4G, it was only measured at 450 Mbps (almost half a gigabyte), nowhere near its maximum 5G connection speed of 20Gbps.

As highlighted by Ernest Doku, telecoms expert at Uswitch.com, despite more than a decade’s research, 5G was only just trialled in the UK 3 years ago and, as such, the technology is not yet living up to its potential because it is “still in its infancy”. Mr Doku pointed to the twin challenges of the technology not yet reaching its potential and not being readily available to all as hurdles to overcome before “5G could well play a pivotal role in connecting our homes in ways we may have never imagined”. 

What Does This Mean For Your Business? 

4G speeds are still well below where they are expected to be for many users in different parts of the UK, let alone expecting to get the real benefits of 5G any time soon. As highlighted by the study, there are big differences in connection speeds in different UK regions and between urban and country areas which means that businesses based in more rural areas of the country (e.g. Yorkshire) will be at a disadvantage to businesses in major cities. The study has also highlighted how 5G technology generally is in its infancy in the UK. Countries like North America, China, Japan, and South Korea are well ahead in their availability and use of the benefits of 5G technology and only 6 European markets had 5G Availability above 20 per cent by Q4 202, with the Netherlands leading the European countries. This means that European businesses are at a considerable communications competitive disadvantage to US and Asian businesses, and the wait for consistent 5G that lives up to its potential in the UK looks like being quite a long and frustrating one for many UK businesses.

In this insight, we look at what a ‘Discord server’ is, how to set one up, and the pros and cons of Discord servers.

What Is It? 

Launched in 2015, ‘Discord’ (https://discord.com/) is a (free to access) voice, video and text chat app where users can set up their own public server / dedicated virtual room / topic-based channel known as a ‘Discord Server’. This can be used as a platform for exchanging ideas, news, or details about shared interests. Users can set up invite-only, topic-based channels to collaborate, share, or just talk without clogging up a group chat.

Discord, which is mostly popular among younger users, was originally set up for those interested in video games and has grown to become a social network with 150 million active monthly users, 19 million active servers per week, and 4 billion server conversation minutes daily.

How It Works 

Discord is free, although there are two subscriptions for Discord ‘Nitro’ which gives users more uploads allowance (50MB or 100MB) and other benefits like custom emojis and HD video streaming.

To use Discord and set up a Discord Server (a channel), you’d need to :

– Go to Discord, get the app for desktop or smartphone/tablet, sign-up and log in.

– Click on the plus symbol (left-hand side of the page).

– Select ‘Create a server.’

– Specify whether the server is for friends or for an official club/community (this question can be skipped).

– Choose and enter a name for the new Discord server, i.e. one that represents the topic of that channel/server, such as #Mr_Bean (servers identified by a hashtag #).

– Click on ‘Create.’

Users can then be invited to the server or find links online to access it.

Who? 

Although under-17s can still register and use the platform, it has a teen rating on the Google Play store and has a 17+ rating on the Apple Store.

How Many/Much? 

Although Discord group chats can be created without a server, this limits the number of participants to 109 per group. Setting up a Discord Server means there can be up to 25 participants per Discord channel using the text and video chat at the same time. A Discord server can contain up to 500 channels.

Pros & Cons 

Some of the disadvantages of having a Discord Server include:

– Parents may wish to note that Discord servers can contain adult content, so may not be suitable for very young users, plus conversations are private to a group so may be difficult to monitor.

– There can be extra costs, e.g. in addition to the Nitro subscription, users can spend money on other users by donating to channels they follow or joining paid-only servers.

– From a business point of view, there are no ads on Discord.

Advantages of Discord servers include:

– It is free (if users don’t subscribe to Nitro) and, particularly for younger users, it is a great place to discover other people with similar interests, learn more about those interests, and to build a community.

– Discord servers are flexible and customisable.

– Discord can be an effective way to market a brand and increase brand awareness, e.g. of an electronic game or similar.

– Many streamers and public figures, for instance, offer private channels on the app that are only available to people who subscribe to their Patreon, which makes it useful for generating new users.

– It’s easy to use the app and communicate, there’s lots of functionality, and it can be accessed on-the-go.

What Does This Mean For Your Business? 

Discord is proving to be increasingly popular among young people and it has been rumoured that Microsoft is interested in buying it. For businesses, Discord’s focus on serving groups with specific interests can provide businesses with a way to closely target specific interest groups and build users. It’s also a platform that is used by influencers and, therefore, provides another way for businesses to reach specific audiences. One of the challenges that Discord could help businesses with is being able to develop a community on a deeper level and develop real engagement with a brand. Discord can provide a way to build the kind of storytelling that’s so important to effective branding and create a real a buzz that could build sales. Discord also offers businesses another route to offer highly efficient customer service.

After finally buying Twitter, firing the CEO, dissolving the Board, plus naming himself sole director and “Chief Twit,” we look at what’s happening at Twitter and where it could be heading.

Twitter Takeover 

Following many months of negotiations, Tesla founder, Space X boss and world’s richest man Elon Musk finally bought Twitter in a $44bn (£38.3bn) deal.

Why? 

As with most significant moves that Musk makes, there are different opinions about his motives, many of them critical. As for Musk himself, he said “The reason I acquired Twitter is because it is important for the future of civilisation to have a common digital town square”, which is similar to his reason given back in May where she described “free speech” as being “the bedrock of a functioning democracy” and said that “Twitter is the digital town square where matters vital to the future of humanity are debated.” 

Mr Musk, however, tempered any free speech purist views (which have worried many) with an assurance that “Twitter obviously cannot become a free-for-all hell-scape, where anything can be said with no consequences!”   

More critical voices have suggested that Musk bought Twitter to control what’s being said about himself, that it’s a kind of folly that he has no firm plan of what to do with, and that he had to go through with the purchase in the end to avoid an extremely costly legal action.

Recent Events 

Although the Twitter purchase has been a long-running, on/off affair, now that the purchase / takeover has gone through, Musk has moved quickly in making some significant changes including:

– Dissolving Twitter’s Board of Directors and making himself the sole Director. As CEO anyway he now has total control over Twitter. Musk also jokingly altered his profile, first to “Chief Twit”, and now to “Twitter Complaint Hotline Operator”.

– Many top Twitter executives have gone in the takeover, including CEO Parag Agrawal, COO Ned Segal, legal and policy head Vijaya Gadde, and general counsel Sean Edgett.

– Musk announced plans to revise Twitter’s “Blue Tick” service, which could involve charging businesses $20 (£17) per month to be verified. The Blue Tick service gives subscribers access to various premium features, such as being able to undo a tweet.

Musk bringing Tesla engineers into Twitter’s office to scrutinise internal codes after the takeover.

Concerns 

Twitter has 230 million users (compared with more than 1 billion on TikTok), has been shown to play an important part in America’s national politics, with some high-profile users able to create a serious impact with their Tweets, (e.g., Donald Trump or Elon Musk himself) making it an enormously powerful social media channel with huge influence. This, along with the fact that the company is a large employer and has businesses as advertisers (its customers) have led to many concerns about Musk’s takeover and what could happen next. These include:

– Musk’s well publicised view that Twitter has done too much to control its platform, and that there needs to be more free speech could make advertisers nervous. Twitter currently relies upon advertising for 90 per cent of its revenues. If more free speech means less restrictive moderation and potentially toxic content, advertisers may fear that their brands may be tarnished by association and stop ad spends with Twitter.

– Questions about how responsible Musk himself is/will be going forward regarding the nature of his Tweets, judging by his past record. For example, Musk’s recent (withdrawn) Tweet about Paul Pelosi which apparently gave credence to a conspiracy theory, and his famous 2018 tweet where he stated that he was considering taking Tesla Inc. Private.

– Some brand managers have criticised Twitter as becoming a less engaging and interesting platform over the last year where a high expectation customer-service perception can easily lead to complaints and trolling.

– Even though Twitter has a daily user base of 230 million people, the company hasn’t generated significant profits in nearly nine years (as a public company) and share values have lagged behind those of rivals.

– Ongoing, growing competition from other social media platforms (e.g., TikTok) and their visions for the future, e.g. Meta providing new potential advertising ideas for companies.

– The unusual nature of the deal to buy Twitter, i.e., more cash than the typical buyout and more debt than Twitter may be able to cope with. This, combined with the underwhelming profits, plus the dangers of free speech and its deterrent effect on advertisers could threaten the company’s ability to pay off the high debt and interest payments.

– Apart from Musk’s latest plans to start charging £20 per month for Blue Tick, no other current meaningful source of revenue other than advertising, meaning that the company may have to continue with its current model for longer. No real revenue source changes coupled with nervous advertisers could create huge risk.

– Concerns over potential job losses at Twitter. For example, there have been reports that Musk’s Twitter could lay off 25 per cent of the workforce in first round of job cuts.

– Concerns about the potential effects on national security in the US and possible Saudi influences. For example, U.S. Senator (Democrat) Chris Murphy has said he wants a U.S. national security review of a Saudi Arabian conglomerate’s stake in Twitter Inc.

– Concerns that Donald Trump will be allowed back onto Twitter. For example, Musk tweeted that he would introduce a “council’ to decide whether Donald Trump would be allowed back, despite Trump being given a ‘permanent’ ban, and saying he didn’t plan to re-join Twitter anyway.

– Fears for Tesla. For example, some people have expressed concern that Musk’s Twitter deal and the work needed to make changes and create more revenue could take his attention away from Tesla. Also, Musk selling Tesla shares and putting them up as collateral for personal loans to raise cash means that Tesla’s value may now be linked to Twitter’s. This could mean that any problems with Twitter, e.g., caused by the wrong kind of “free speech” or trouble paying back debt could mean Musk drawing even more on Tesla stock, thereby creating more risk for Tesla.

What Could Go Right? 

Despite there being many concerns, a great deal of uncertainty, plus significant risk to Musk, Tesla, and Twitter’s fortunes, some commentators have pointed to the necessity of keeping advertisers happy, which Musk will no doubt wish to do following the hype of the takeover. In addition to saving costs through executive and other staff layoffs, and adding more revenue via Blue Tick subscriptions, other ways that Musk may add revenue and value going forward could include, for example:

– Enhanced product features, open-source algorithms, spam-beating, and authentication changes building trust among advertisers (and attracting new ones) while creating new revenue opportunities.

– Crypto advertisers, knowing about Musk’s liking for cryptocurrencies, buying more advertising with Twitter.

– New types of experiential and immersive advertising which command higher rates from advertisers (again, remembering Musk’s dislike of traditional advertising).

– New ways of monetising Tweets. For example, charging companies fees for embedding or quote-tweeting verified users.

Like Weibo? 

Some commentators have also suggested that Musk could tie many strands together to turn Twitter into something like China’s ‘Weibo’ app. Weibo is a kind of everything app / super app – an amalgamation of Twitter, WhatsApp, Amazon, and PayPal (PayPal was founded by Musk). Musk was reported to be considering an app like Weibo, which he called the ‘everything app’. Back in the summer, when talking to Twitter employees, Musk suggested that there was no equivalent to a super app like WeChat outside of Asia and has been reported to be considering creating a superapp, perhaps from Twitter.

What Does This Mean For Your Business? 

Twitter has hundreds of millions of users, is highly influential socially and politically, and is a valuable channel to advertisers and businesses globally. This means that who is in charge of it plus its direction and fate socially significant and with Musk’s controversial personal brand now linked with Twitter’s (not to mention Tesla’s fate also linked to the deal) there are obvious concerns going forward, particularly if too much of the wrong kind of ‘free speech’ is involved. That said, as the world’s richest man with some significant business successes on the cutting edge of future technologies (Tesla electric vehicles, Space X etc) it could be argued that he has the skills and experience to improve Twitter. Musk has already suggested new revenue streams, e.g. Blue Tick, and could develop Twitter into a super app. However, it’s early days with Musk as supreme leader and it remains to be seen how things move forward following what appears likely to be an imminent and significant round of job cuts.

In what could be big step forward for environmental clean-ups, a team of researchers from the University of Washington has created a new technique for destroying so-called ‘forever chemicals’.

What Are Forever Chemicals?

‘Forever chemicals’ refers to molecules / chemical compounds that are found in found in many different consumer, commercial, and industrial product and encountered in our everyday lives e.g., food packaging and household cleaning goods. These chemicals, however, persist in water, air, fish, and soil, and are known to be able to cause health problems such as cancer or fertility issues. The fact that these don’t degrade and simply circulate in our water and food is why they are known as ‘forever chemicals.’ For example, Perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) and perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) are perfluorinated chemicals (PFCs) that are referred to as forever chemicals.

New technique for destroying both PFOA and PFOS 

The good news is that researchers from the University of Washington have created a new technique that completely breaks down PFOA and PFOS using “supercritical water,” which is formed at high temperatures and pressure. The method, which happens within a ‘reactor’ made from thick stainless-steel pipe works by heating water pressure so that it doesn’t turn to steam. Instead, it reaches a different state of matter, called the supercritical phase. In this phase, where it is not a liquid or a gas, the water molecules become like ionized particles, bouncing around at high temperatures and high speeds. This enables them to break down PFOS and PFOA leaving only harmless substances, such as carbon dioxide, water, and fluoride salts.

Real World Applications 

Although the researchers are still at the stage of testing how the reactor process could destroy other forever chemicals, and assessing how well the technology could work for real-world scenarios, there is speculation that this new method of destroying forever chemicals could:

– Help improve the effectiveness of treating industrial waste, thereby cutting the amount of forever chemicals being released into (and damaging) the environment.

– Destroy many of the concentrated forever chemicals currently present in the environment, thereby preserving plant and animal life.

– Dispose of old stocks, such as the forever chemicals in fire-fighting foam, thereby reducing the risk of further pollution and improving safety.

What Does This Mean For Your Organisation? 

How to effectively and completely break down damaging forever chemicals, at scale, and in a low-cost way has been a major challenge. This new method, which appears to be highly effective and essentially just uses water and breaks down the chemicals to totally harmless substances is extremely promising both from human health and broader environmental perspectives. Using this method, industrial waste could be cleaned-up before it comes into contact with the environment, dramatically reducing the amount dangerous of long-term pollutants entering the food chain, and helping to make those industries cleaner. The hope is also that this method, as is being tested at the moment, will also work for other real-world scenarios.

Google has rolled-out an emergency security update for its Chrome web browser to fix an exploited zero-day “confusion” flaw in in the V8 JavaScript engine, i.e. a confusion between object types in the part that executes JavaScript code. For this (seventh) zero-day in Google Chrome since the start of 2022, the advice to users is to upgrade to version 107.0.5304.87 for macOS and Linux, and 107.0.5304.87/.88 for Windows to mitigate potential threats. Users of Chromium-based browsers – Edge, Brave, Opera, and Vivaldi – are also advised to apply the fixes.