COMBATING NHT:
(Part Three)
Most servers have defence mechanisms to tackle spam and
cyber-attacks. Websites are also asking for human authentication which is
difficult for a BOT to execute. Still, personal computers should be equipped with
strong Internet Security Applications such as Anti-virus and Anti-spyware to
prevent hacking and phishing attempts and to prevent being used as slave
machines for distributed cyber-attacks. We need to watch out where and how we
go online.
2013 Norton Report says, “61% Indian access their social network
accounts from unsecured wi-fi connections, while 42% access bank accounts and
44% shop online using unsecured wi-fi connections.”
Social media companies gradually devising mechanisms to
filter BOTs.
Facebook’s site integrity policy mentions, “When a page and
a fan connect on Facebook, we want to ensure that connection involves a real
person interested in hearing from a specific page and engaging with that
brand’s content. As such, we have recently increased our automated efforts to
remove likes on pages that may have been gained by means that violate our
terms.”
Agency-client intervention is necessary to ensure that
artificial traffic is not presented as real. It is also important to make all
agencies, advertisers and clients aware of their responsibility to keep the
Internet free from malicious NHT.
Government involvement is also needed to control the problem
of malicious BOTs. Until we have robust mechanism to filter out bogus traffic
from real, it will be difficult to say whether the social media followers are
human or not.
Continued…………… -
Ref: Hindustan Times dtd. 5th
January 2014
