SA’s young scientists share their research on fake news and Covid-19-linked cybercrime

Young scientists from South Africa’s Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) used the country’s “Youth Month” in June to showcase their findings in the fields of fake news and Covid-19-related crime.

Speaking at a media briefing in Pretoria on 23 June 2020, researcher Nelisiwe Dlamini emphasised the need for people to verify stories on social media – and especially those with anything to do with Covid-19 – before sharing them, saying that the spread of false information had the potential to create panic during the pandemic. “Looking up the author of the story and looking for backing from experts on the subject matter are often one’s best bets to verifying the credibility of a story or breaking news,” she said, adding: “Combatting the impact of the global Covid-19 crisis is difficult enough without the uncontrolled spread of extremely harmful content on social media platforms.”

To this end, the CSIR has created a dashboard to assist government and health institutions to track the spread of misinformation with categories including misinformation and misleading content, disinformation and fabricated content, and mal-information and hate speech.

The entity has also established a security operations centre (SOC), which houses an information team responsible for monitoring and analysing organisations’ security risk vulnerabilities on a regular basis.

With the number of employees and students now working online from their homes, the cyber threat landscape is also growing, hence the vital role of the SOC to detect, analyse and respond to cybersecurity incidents, says the CSIR. This will be done through the use of technology in conjunction with a strong set of processes for local municipalities and other entities to protect them against phishing attacks and malware.

Says CSIR cybersecurity researcher Thabo Mahlangu: “Cybercriminals have quickly adapted to using the Covid-19 pandemic as an opportunity to launch themed attacks in vulnerable environments. To mitigate this, we have adapted a data-driven security approach, the SOC, to forecast potential malware attacks and fight against phishing attacks.”

“With employees now working remotely, connecting to employers’ networks via various online platforms brings about many security challenges. There is an increase in attempts to steal data from users, malware and phishing attempts, breaches on video conferencing platforms, and scams and fraudulent activities using digital means,” he said.

CSIR biometric researcher Kedimotse Baruni showcased the organisation’s face biometric technology, which does not require individuals to be in physical contact devices. Face biometric modalities recognition technologies have a major role to play in terms of curbing the spread of infectious deceases such as Covid-19, she said. “Identifying people at hospitals and banks using contact identification is a concern for the spread of Covid-19. The CSIR is using its face recognition technology to assist with a contactless way of identifying people as it will reduce the need for objects such as fingerprint scanners to be touched by several people, inevitably eliminating the risk of contamination,” Baruni said, noting that the proposed identification methodology uses the eyes, mouth, jaw and nose features to identify an individual.