In reality, spying doesn’t generally involve big explosions and James Bond-style action sequences.
These days, it doesn’t even have to involve sidling over to a target to engage them in conversation in an attempt to glean confidential information.
MI5, the UK’s security service, says that it spotted 10,000 UK nationals being targeted on social media in attempts to gain access to sensitive information last year.
Now, a new app launched by the government’s Centre for the Protection of National Infrastructure (CPNI) aims to give people the tools they need to recognise and avoid such approaches.
The Think Before You Link app helps people perform their own due diligence checks on people who approach them online.
It is aimed mainly at people working in government and sensitive industries, but is also free for everyone to download from this week.
The app has been designed with the assistance of behavioural scientists and provides the user with a series of questions to help them make an assessment of the person approaching them online.
Some red flags to look out for include offers that seem too good to be true and flattery.
App features an inbuilt reverse image searcher
The profile reviewer, which aims to spot fake profiles on platforms such as Twitter and Facebook, also has an inbuilt reverse image searcher.
This can be used to quickly spot images that have been used on other sites – which is often a sign of a fake profile.
The app does not use a database of previously identified spies and cannot provide a definitive answer, but the questions and image search are used to assess whether a profile is a low, medium or high risk.
Unless it is deemed low risk, users are encouraged to report the profile using another inbuilt feature of the app.
Think Before You Link also has case studies and interactive learning tailored for people from different sectors and roles.
It even has trophies and certificates you can earn and share with your work security team, allowing you to ‘gamify’ your spy spotting.
Ken McCallum, director general of MI5, said that spies from foreign countries are actively looking to forge relationships with people working in high-tech sectors, academia and government.
Cyber security minister Steve Barclay added that fake social media profiles were being set up on an “industrial scale” and that the app would be an important tool in protecting our information.
Today’s news was brought to you by TD SYNNEX – the UK’s number one solutions distributor.
