"Security should be there by default": Investigating how journalists perceive and respond to risks from the Internet of Things

Abstract

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Threats to Journalists from the Consumer Internet of Things

“…Even an article discussing the implications of "tech tools" used by a technology and media journalist did not mention IoT devices at all, but instead solely focused on smartphone applications and the consequences of targeted advertising [29]. Similarly, our pilot study found that news organisations' cyber protection policies and strategies currently do not incorporate the IoT [5]. Based on this, our categories and threat titles are followed by hypotheticals that describe possible consequences of such threats for the press.…”

“…Two research questions were developed from previous research on this topic, which demonstrated that journalists are not cognisant of consumer IoT threats and do not currently have access to relevant educational resources [5]. These questions are: (1) "What are the distinctive and novel threats to journalism from the consumer IoT?"…”

“…[2][3][4]); however, there are few user-specific assessments of privacy and security threats that can be enacted using IoT devices, and none relating to journalists. Our pilot study involved interviewing and surveying members of the media from around the world to establish the extent to which they interact with the IoT and their knowledge of associated threats [5]. This study determined that this community is particularly vulnerable to IoT threats because of a lack of understanding of how these new technologies could increase risk to the work and wellbeing of members of the press and their sources, and of what can be done to mitigate these threats [5].…”

“…Our pilot study involved interviewing and surveying members of the media from around the world to establish the extent to which they interact with the IoT and their knowledge of associated threats [5]. This study determined that this community is particularly vulnerable to IoT threats because of a lack of understanding of how these new technologies could increase risk to the work and wellbeing of members of the press and their sources, and of what can be done to mitigate these threats [5]. Further, journalists merit being the focus of research into IoT threats because of the public-facing nature of their job, which increases their risk level [6][7][8][9][10], and also means that any consequences of successful attacks may extend far beyond an individual journalist and potentially destabilise other democratic infrastructure [11][12][13].…”

“…Therefore, this article uses existing literature to propose a novel conceptualisation that explores ways in which these threats can manifest against the press, largely relating to surveillance [16]. Journalists' understanding of their cyber security [17][18][19], and how IoT devices could present a threat remains low [5]. These new IoT threat categories explore impacts and implications of IoT devices for the media, to increase understanding of the societal effects of surveillance and kinetic threats to journalists from these technologies.…”