Cyber Security Awareness

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Cyber Security Awareness

Importance of Cyber Security and Whose Job is it?

Technology is evident, we apply our scientific knowledge to reduce the amount and complexity of our work. There are two major reasons for us to seek for technological advancement, the first one is that we wanted to make life easy and explore more about the very existence of our self. We have advanced so much that we are able to talk to our loved once in an instant, book movie tickets without even approaching the theater in person, we are even able to study and obtain a degree online.

The second reason is that we are lazy and we spend money on ridiculous products. The definition of the need for one to survive has faded over the course of time. Okay it all seems wonderful, that we use all these tech products to achieve what we wanted to, but is that all?

Have you ever questioned the functionality of the product that you are using?

Have you ever wondered if the Application in your mobile device is performing only what it’s supposed to do?

There are 3 major things that has to be considered before using any piece of technology.

1. Confidentiality – who has access to my data?
2. Integrity – who can modify my data?
3. Availability – Do I have access to my data?

All these data we are talking about could be used by anyone, from any part of the world. When it gets to the wrong hands things could get really ugly, these people who steal data for a personal gain or to cause damage to an individual or a group of people are generally termed as “Hackers”.

With that being said, the moment you start using the internet you join a huge community of people who is doing the same. All you do here is exchange information in different formats, it could be any kind of information.

Today internet has become a major part of business, according to the stats 8 new users join the internet every second, and 30,000 websites are infected everyday of which 80% belong to a small scale business.

We have advanced so much that you can hire a hacking services from black hat hackers around the world, to knock down your rival in a business or to perform cyber-criminal activities. These cyber criminals have professional services to test the quality of their “Malware” that they create

[www.virustotal.com]

. One of pack that was responsible for almost 1/3rd of the “Malware” distribution in the world is known as The Black hole exploit pack, it even comes with a technical support where one would get support from a professional cyber-criminal.

You may wonder what someone would possibly do with your data, every single piece of data in your devices contain information about you, I.E. The pictures that you post in social media which was taken from your Mobile device contains information such as the GPS, with which one would be able to locate where the picture was taken. If you upload a picture which was captured in your home, a hacker would be able to obtain your address, which a bunch of the pictures that you post online one will be able to map your interests, places that you have been to, and your regular routine and lifestyle.

You think you are living a life free of war?

Here is a secret, you are not!

We are at war every day against an unknown enemy, we don’t know what’s exposed, what should be exposed & what’s vulnerable. If you are vulnerable anyone could go bankrupt in a short period of time.

How can we protect our self from these kind of threats?

1. Awareness of information security.
2. Questioning the products you use.

It’s the responsibility of software developers to develop products that are secure, companies should hire a security consultant and perform regular code audits from time to time which would reduce the risk of data being exposed. This would also enable people to trust the products they use, people should question the products on their security and demand at least industry standard security protocol being followed by the developers. For instance GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) proposes a list of regulations that has to be followed by industries, PCI-DDS (Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard) is an information security standard that ensures the prevention of known credit card frauds.

As long as there is technology there will be people who use it for good and for evil, you can defend against such attacks by practicing the best cyber self-defense strategies. The most prevalent cyber-attack is called social engineering in which the cyber criminals gains your trust to obtain your data.

You might have come across many phishing emails which promotes a tempting offer and when you click on you become a victim even before you realize that you have been baited. How do you protect against such attacks?

It’s simple:

1. Use your common sense
2. Question the reality of the subject matter
3. Define the Exposure of your data

STOP CLICKING!

Before clicking on any link, think about the information its requesting for, think about what data you should be exposing and how it could impact your friends, family, yourself and your organization. Use secure passwords and don’t use the same password for every accounts. Two factor authentication is recommended for additional security. Update your software to make sure all the security misconfiguration is patched.

Stay Safe, Stay Secure.

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[0x4c304c]

Indeed! a good post!

[lynxmk]

Mate, No need for ‘cyber security awareness’ on a Cyber Security forum. This post should be on reddit or some social media platform. Nice post.