Eirsec

17/03/2026

When AI is implemented without proper oversight

Angela Lipps spent nearly six months in jail after AI software linked her to a North Dakota bank fraud case

12/03/2026

Staff sent home as Iranian-backed hacktivists shut down some of Stryker's systems and wipe some staff members' phones

29/01/2026

Congress recently grilled the acting chief on mass layoffs and a failed polygraph.

24/01/2026

149 Million Usernames and Passwords Exposed by Unsecured Database

This “dream wish list for criminals” includes millions of Gmail, Facebook, banking logins, and more. The researcher who discovered it suspects they were collected using infostealing malware.

02/11/2025

The US government is inching closer to banning these routers due to the company's ties to China, according to a recent report. Here's why we're not pulling our TP-Link recommendations (yet), and what you can do to keep your Wi-Fi network safe.

25/10/2025

Half of Political Comments Online Are Written by Bots, and the Problem Is Getting Worse.

Recent studies show that nearly half of all comments on political posts are written by bots, with some discussions almost entirely automated. This problem spans across major social media platforms and news sites, quietly reshaping public debate.

Modern bots are far more sophisticated than the spam accounts people once ignored. Many now use artificial intelligence to scrape websites that share the same political leanings as their operators. The content is then slightly rewritten and reposted on threads that match specific keywords or phrases. The intent is to influence opinion, create division, and amplify targeted narratives.

What started as a tactic used mainly by Russian disinformation campaigns against American audiences has expanded to include a growing number of conservative groups. These groups often promote identical pro-Trump messages that mirror those from earlier foreign operations. During the Trump administration, millions of dollars were reportedly allocated to social media funding that supported this kind of online influence activity.

Companies such as Meta are fully aware of the issue but have done little to stop it. Outrage increases engagement, and engagement brings revenue. As a result, fabricated discussions often gain more visibility than genuine ones.

A good example is the Cracker Barrel rebranding controversy. The company faced intense online backlash after introducing a new look designed to attract younger customers. The goal was to modernize the brand and revive sales as its traditional audience aged. Under pressure from what appeared to be widespread outrage, Cracker Barrel cancelled the rebrand. Later investigations revealed that much of the outrage had been generated by bot networks. The decision to give in to fake feedback left the company in the same financial trouble it had been trying to solve.

Tools such as SpiderAF and Cloudflare can help website owners detect and block known bot activity, but social media platforms have little reason to act. Their advertising systems allow keyword targeting, and those same systems are exploited by bot operators to locate trending posts and flood them with AI-generated comments.

The result is a distorted online environment where artificial conversations often overpower real human voices. As bot technology continues to evolve, it is becoming increasingly difficult to tell the difference between authentic opinion and digital manipulation.

-WW

Here is a nice article by SpiderAF that outlines the issue with some more technical detail.

Social media bots fake engagement and skew metrics. Learn how they work, why they harm campaigns, and how to protect your brand with tools like Spider AF.

20/10/2025

A major Amazon Web Services (AWS) outage has caused widespread internet disruptions this morning, taking down dozens of popular apps,

10/02/2025

CAPTCHAs are no longer an effective defense against bots—AI has been bypassing them for years. Yet, they remain widely used across the internet. Why?

Google operates the largest CAPTCHA services and leverages them not just for security but for data collection. These interactions help track users and fuel their advertising business, generating trillions in revenue—all while users unknowingly contribute by clicking on images of buses and traffic lights.

Is that good?

25/08/2024

In America if you receive government money for research you must maintain government approved cybersecurity protocols else you will lose your funding and be arrested for fraud.

Researchers allegedly found security protocols "burdensome."

09/07/2024

The yearly report from the Data Protection Commision for 2023 here in Ireland. It outlines all breaches, fines, and stats on all other relevant topics. Worth a read through for any companies doing business in Ireland.

10/05/2024

These checks are very common. Others claim to be looking for suspicious vans or people. Don't repost anything you have not personally checked first by searching on Google else you make yourself a target.

This is how scammers who create duplicate profiles identify victims.

An expert told USA TODAY the copy-and-paste posts serve as a "gullibility check" for scammers to identify potential targets.