The Blak Sovereign Movement's campaign was compromised by an unsophisticated "Typosquatting" hack, discovered on 4 August, which raised renewed concerns of cyber espionage in the lead up to the Voice referendum.

The incident followed advice from experts who warned that in the lead up to the referendum there would be an increase in racially-motivated online attacks.

National Indigenous Times has noticed a significant increase in racist remarks in the comments sections of its Facebook page.

As Artificial Intelligence (AI) continues to grow at rapid speeds social media has become even more of a tool for spreading misinformation, disinformation and racism.

Global cyber-security expert Sir Robert Carloff, a Darumbal man, studied a Masters of Business Informatics and a Masters of Policing Intelligence and Counter Terrorism, specialising in Cyber-security, in Australia before moving abroad where his expertise have since been utilised by the White House in developing the National Cybersecurity Strategy and the G7 (Group of Seven) guidance on ransomware.

"It can be pretty scary out there. For example, last week, I reported on over 94 security breaches, over 10 million people were affected," he told National Indigenous Times.

"Cyber news is only reported when it affects major companies such as financial institutions, government agencies or critical infrastructure. But cyber events occur every second of every day; the majority of these are not reported and they impact multiple organisations and individuals."

When asked about the recent incident of URL redirecting involving Blak Sovereign Movement and the YES Campaign, Mr Carloff advised this is called "Typosquatting."

"Even though they didn't interchange letters to special characters, it falls under that type of squatting."

He said when incidents like this occur, being able to engage local law enforcement to approach the domain register and request for the sites to be taken down would be an ideal course of action.

On how to avoid these types of incidents happening in the future, Mr Carloff said: "A lot of the large companies actually buy domains that are look-alike and just put them on ice to avoid typosquatting threats that may occur."

The Blak Sovereign Movement's ``typosquatting" issue, "wasn't a sophisticated hack, like with typical typosquatting, it could be that old adage of a little kid just mucking around in the basement" he said.

"Why would 'Yes 23' do something like that? ...I don't think they would have a good motivation to do that. Like, why would you?

"I don't know if that's something malicious, or if it's something coming out, originating from another country."

Mr Carloff advised that he couldn't find any evidence the attack came from a Canberra site, as per a rumour, and it was hard to establish a 'Threat Actor' before adding that experts in the field look at indicators of compromise (IOCs) and Tactics, Techniques, and Procedures (TTPs).

"Cyberattacks generally follow geopolitics, and let's say if there was an international delegation between neighbouring countries, these countries would undertake online reconnaissance, crawling the web, looking for an advantage. It's the new norm," he said.

"It's really just understanding the cyber and physical threat landscape. I personally see that a lot. The biggest example I can give you now is what's happening in Eastern Europe.

"What's happening with Ukraine, and then Russia, and the rest of the world. Lots of movement. Lots of pieces. It's complex. It's not easy.

"Nation states are really good (at these tactics). If you are a target. I'd go as far to say that if they want you, they'll get you, and it doesn't matter who you are, it doesn't matter if they are a Western agency or not."

A recent study found that social media is riddled with fake accounts and AI bots that are contributing to the super-spreading of misinformation.

"It happens all the time, it probably happens more than you actually think," Mr Carloff said.

"Talking about ways to combat it, I'm a huge advocate here of having a social media licence.

"And the reasoning for that is, it's like in Australia, you have your driver's licence, but to get it, you have to show 100 points of verification. Now, within social media, the issue is that all these fake accounts end up creating a false economy. That has to stop.

"And it should not be a big issue to fix. Social media and big tech companies can put a stop to these fake accounts in no time. The question is, why aren't they?"

Mr Carloff suggested that a requirement for a social media licence would stop "99 per cent" of fake accounts.

"Social media, big tech, industry and government have to collaborate and come up with a strategy not to stop it, but to eliminate it altogether. The amount of fraud that happens, not only in Australia, but globally is just astronomical. So would a social media licence stop fake accounts? No, the bad guys always find a way, but it would be limited by 99 per cent." Business accounts on the other hand would be handled a little differently but at the same time there should be a verification process that takes place."

Mr Carloff informed the top three issues being discussed at the highest-level of forums that the general public should also be considering include:

1. Cloud

"People don't understand it, even though it's been around for a while. Everything's moving towards it, and it's moving extremely quickly. So making sure that it is completely secure is a top priority."

2. AI

"As a technology, it has grown the quickest, people don't understand it. It's being used to develop malware and it is also being developed to combat it. You must Embrace, Enhance and Extinguish the technology - a strategy or tactic that has been attributed to Microsoft in the context of its business practices, particularly during the late 1990s and early 2000s.

3. Supply Chain or Third Party Risk

"Are related concepts that refer to the potential threats and vulnerabilities that can arise when organisations rely on external parties, such as suppliers, vendors, or service providers, to conduct their operations. The risks are generally overlooked for several reasons."