September 25, 2022
Corrections: I erroneously said the video about cyber was from the German military. It was, of course, from the other one.
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I Fooled Millions Into Thinking Chocolate Helps Weight Loss. Here’s How.
Great story of crafting and running an information operation. The specifics are about selling the idea that eating chocolate accelerates weight loss.
The key is to exploit journalists’ incredible laziness. If you lay out the information just right, you can shape the story that emerges in the media almost like you were writing those stories yourself. In fact, that’s literally what you’re doing, since many reporters just copied and pasted our text.
Take a look at the press release I cooked up. It has everything. In reporter lingo: a sexy lede, a clear nut graf, some punchy quotes, and a kicker. And there’s no need to even read the scientific paper because the key details are already boiled down. I took special care to keep it accurate. Rather than tricking journalists, the goal was to lure them with a completely typical press release about a research paper. (Of course, what’s missing is the number of subjects and the minuscule weight differences between the groups.)
International Press Release: Slim by Chocolate:
International Press Release: Slim by Chocolate
New study finds that chocolate accelerates weight loss MAINZ, GERMANY—Can you indulge your sweet tooth and lose weight at the same time? If it’s chocolate you crave, then the answer seems to be: ye…
Depressingly prescient (article from 2015):
…journalists are becoming the de facto peer review system. And when we fail, the world is awash in junk science.
I Fooled Millions Into Thinking Chocolate Helps Weight Loss. Here's How.
“Slim by Chocolate!” the headlines blared. A team of German researchers had found that people on a low-carb diet lost weight 10 percent faster if they ate a chocolate bar every day. It made the front page of Bild, Europe’s largest daily newspaper, just beneath their update about the Germanwings crash. From there, it…
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https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2022-09-15/china-wanted-ge-s-secrets-but-then-their-spy-got-caught-
The ROMHACK 2022 live stream archive is on YouTube. It hasn’t been edited so the talks aren’t easy to find.
James Forshaw’s talk is at 40:29
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Presented without comment on the author, merely noting that it is public.
Author: Jacob Appelbaum / ioerror. Promotors: @hashbreaker & @hyperelliptic.
