Cyber experts explain what companies can do to track threats
Texas School Shooting: Victims IDed, gunman's social media scrutinized
The gunman who massacred 19 children and two teachers at a Texas elementary school legally bought two AR-style rifles just days before the attack, soon after his 18th birthday, and seemed to hint online that something was about to happen.
LAKE MARY, Fla. - Tuesday's mass school shooting in Texas follows a trend of suspects leaving a trail on social media.
When you're using social media, it seems like they know what you're typing and can send you ads specifically tailored to it. But could they be doing more to pick up on and report possible threats?
"The challenge is privacy," said Ron Frechette, the CEO of Goldsky Cyber Security Solutions. "So there are privacy laws out there that prohibit them from looking at certain people or tracking certain people. So really at the end of the day, it really starts at the federal level. We have to figure out a way where our privacy is not violated."
Frechette says while tech companies likely could track and report this type of thing, certain privacy laws could be limiting what they can do.
But in the meantime, new technology is on the horizon that could help.
It's called gunshot protection software.
Using artificial intelligence, it can detect the sound of a gunshot and alert authorities.
"It could start closing windows down, it could start locking doors, it could go ahead and notify the local authorities that this happened," Frechette said.
The school shooter in Uvalde, Texas had sent Facebook messages saying he would shoot his grandmother, then shoot up a school.
Officials say that was only about a half hour before the shooting started.
"Notoriety plays a very important role in many of these individuals," said Dave Benson, a retired federal agent and certified threat manager. "Not only do they have a perceived grievance and they feel like they've been wronged and they’ve ideated, and they’ve decided to do something about it, they want to go out with a bang, they want the world to know what they were doing and why they were doing it."
Benson says it's crucial for people and for companies to catch these things and report them.