Cyber Security Awareness

Cyber Security Awareness

The DOs

1. While you are banking, shopping or paying your bills online, check if the website’s URL begins with ‘https’. Also look for the padlock icon, which indicates that the connection is secure.
2. Go for unique, and hard to guess passwords. Never keep the same password for different online accounts. Create a password that has a mix of uppercase and lowercase letters, special characters, and numbers.
3. Use your primary email address to stay in touch with people you know or are acquainted with.
4. For social media sites, use an email address that you do not use for important communications.
5. Avoid using free, unsecured Wi-Fi for shopping or banking on the Internet and even for logging into your social media profiles.
6. Delete old accounts that you do not use anymore.
7. Before downloading any free software, research on the software and the website hosting it. Ensure the software’s publisher is verified.
8. Access your bank’s website by manually typing its URL in the address bar. Never access it from an email or a text message.
9. Never click on links or download attachments in unwanted, unexpected emails, even if such emails look like they are from a known source.
10. Take regular backups of all your important files. Doing this is more important now that ransomware attacks are becoming so rampant. It is recommended to store the backup on external hard drives and connect them to your PC as less as possible. Alternatively, you can also use a trusted cloud-based backup service.

The DONT’s

1. Avoid making your personal information public on social media sites and the Internet in general. Read this post to know about the disadvantages of sharing too much information online.
2. Avoid checking ‘Keep me logged in’ or ‘Remember me’ options on websites, especially on public computers.
3. Never use your official email address for social media sites.
4. Never use any of your personal information such as name, date of birth, address, etc., as your password.
5. Never respond to pop-up ads that may come up on your screen. Close such pop-ups from the task manager; press Alt+Ctrl+Delete.
6. Avoid visiting inappropriate websites or websites that you are not fully aware of.

5 ways in which we are sharing too much information online

1. Pouring your heart out on social media
Put up a status update on your Facebook page and swoosh! It’s out there for everyone to see. But, are we careful about what we are sharing on social media? If your privacy settings are shaky, then you could be risking yourself to threats such as identity theft (criminals impersonating you) or a burglary in your house (criminals might locate your home address). Furthermore, posting inappropriate content may also make any future job opportunities slim (yes, recruiters keep a watch on social media profiles of potential employees).

The Remedy
• Avoid posting any personal information on social media.
• Select your audience as ‘Friends’ instead of ‘Public’ unless you are sure what you are posting is okay to be made public.

2. Free Wi-Fi
One of the many things that brighten up the day is free Wi-Fi. Oh, what fun! But, at what price? Public Wi-Fi is called so because anyone (including hackers) can access it. And any information you send or receive over such networks can be intercepted by anyone with a fair amount of knowledge about hacking. For instance, if you are shopping online over an unsecured Wi-Fi connection, a hacker can place themself between you and the shopping portal, spying on all your information. This hacking technique is known as man-in-the-middle attack (MiTM).

The Remedy
• Avoid using open Wi-Fi networks (that do not ask for any kind of authentication such as login ID, passwords, etc.) for accessing websites where you need to provide sensitive information like usernames, passwords, PIN, bank details, etc.
• Even if you do get a network that asks for you to log in first, confirm its authenticity from the provider.
• As an added safety measure, you can use a virtual private network (VPN). It is service that routes your activity through a separate secure, private network and reduces the risk of a man-in-the-middle attack.

3. Responding to unknown emails
Unsurprisingly, email remains the most popular tool that hackers use to trap their victims. One skillfully crafted email bearing an urgent tone, something like ‘Your ATM is locked. Share your PIN and card number for security verification’, is good enough to trick an unsuspecting user into sharing this crucial piece of information with the scammer. This classic technique is called phishing and it has been laying waste to many businesses and individuals since long.

The Remedy
• Do not respond to unwanted, unknown or unexpected emails that ask you to download attachments or click on links.
• Even if such emails seem familiar, call up the sender and verify the situation first.
•Mark such emails as ‘spam’ or delete them from your inbox.

4. Bad password hygiene
While we are readily embracing all possible benefits that the Internet delivers, our password hygiene still remains primitive – predictable and weak. Passwords can be more complicated than love for most people. Jokes aside, using simple passwords so that you can remember them without breaking a sweat means risking your accounts to hackers. What’s worse is using one password for multiple accounts because if a hacker cracks it, they won’t take much long to hack into the rest of your accounts.

The Remedy
• Choose your password that is a mix of uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers, and special characters (symbols).
• If a complicated password is difficult to remember, then try this – take the first letter of every word of your favorite movie, actor’s name, poem or so, and add some numbers and symbols to it. For instance, I take ‘Call of the Hundred Birds’ and my password could be SotHa@#159. Easy to remember!
• Use different passwords for different accounts (especially those where you have provided your personal information).

5. Filling out forms (online and physical)
Your name, phone number, and email ID might seem as plain information to you but these are gold for marketers, more so for scammers. When was the last time you filled out a feedback form for your usual movie theater? Or, did you just recently fill out an online form to receive the services from a website (a PDF download, accessing an article, etc.)? Sharing your information this way might not be always harmful unless you know how this information is being shared or used.

The Remedy
•  While filling up any such forms (online or otherwise), consider using a fictitious name, email ID, and phone number.
• Provide your actual details only if necessary and when you are certain that the information will be used without affecting your privacy.

Technology and the Internet have come a long way in bettering our lives in myriad ways. It’s easy to lose track of how we act or what we do on the Internet every day and sometimes this provides cyberthieves a window of opportunity. But, following some simple precautions such as the ones listed here, should keep us out of harm’s way.