new social attack vector

[dsrtao]

Let us suppose that our target, Tom, is a habitual user of an RSS aggregator. Early on Tom used the service as a fast browser selector, making filtering decisions but ultimately viewing the content by clicking the links. Soon, however, he starts reading some sources right in the aggregator. Eventually Tom relies on the aggregator for leads, filtering and the majority of reading.

Now Mallory gains control of the aggregator in such a fashion that she can insert, edit and delete stories. Tom has a high degree of unwarranted trust in his news source. I don't see any standard verification mechanisms in place for Tom to assure authenticity...

Google is perfectly positioned to be Mallory.

Comments

[dsrtao]

So... everyone has missed my intended point, which means I didn't phrase it properly.

Google is ideally positioned, not to influence everyone's opinions by feeding them false information, because that would be crosschecked... but to selectively poison the information source for one person at a time. And I do not think Google has a particular desire to do so, but the CIA or NSA or FBI or CID or... might well want to target people selectively.

[metahacker.livejournal.com]

Well, if you say it in a comment we mostly won't notice.

I'd had this thought. It's one reason I like LJ; it gives me a larger blob of people and opinions and viewpoints to check up on the world. It's still quite the echo-chamber, but better than just me and the news.