Cyber security research company Trellix says that online misinformation is likely to remain high in 2023 as a result of hacktivism.
Derived from combining the words hack and activism, hacktivism is the act of hacking, or breaking into a computer system, for politically or socially motivated purposes.
In its 2023 forecast report, the company says that this will be mostly due to geo-political influences and conflict.
A cyber security expert Carlo Bolzonello explains, “We’ve seen an uptick in now- especially with this conflict with Ukraine and Russia- and what we’re seeing is two narratives- one is trying to justify one side. Behind that is not predominantly people- it’s what we call bot farms that are generating data, to change perceptions. That’s on the rise and going to rise a lot more as this conflict in Ukraine- it’s the number one we see at the moment as that continues, we start seeing that- but that’s not specific just to that- it can be to anything wider.”
Heightened hacktivism & geopolitical cyberattacks expected in 2023:
