Today's world is highly digital and connected mainly by social networks. Within a short span of time, social media has taken over and empowered the people. Social media is not free from the risk of cyber criminals who are exploiting the media.
Digital literacy is compulsory.
For the save use of digital resources, digital literacy is of utmost importance. The laptops, internet or smartphones should be used effectively to avoid problems like cybercrime copy write issues and security. Digital social awareness is compulsory.
Bots
Bots are a big concern in social media. These are automated systems which can be engaged without any active presence. Bots are misused to create a mirage of a person's personality. Fake accounts are being suspended by companies, but the problem still persists.
Terrorist Attacks
Terrorist attacks have increased due to the social media coverage by the people who share videos and images of any attack, which increases the chaos among the people. In this way, fear and misinformation spreads. Terrorists use social media to spread the impact of terror. Fake news and rumors spread like wildfire in social media.
Ransomware
This is another malware which can get into your computer, when you download an attachment containing the virus. Once it gets into your computer, it encrypts all your files, rendering them useless. Many hospitals, universities, businesses have been target of such attacks.
DDoS
This is another type of attack, where the intruder bombards your server with heavy traffic and crashing it. Video streaming apps and banks are under this type of attacks. Any device connected to the internet can be attacked. If a person by mistake clicks on the link, which contains malware, their accounts gets exposed to hackers.
Mobile Technologies
We are living in a highly mobile world where we use a lot of apps every day. There are many sensors in your phone which can collect data like accelerometer, contacts, location, heart rate, etc.
Internet of things is another such challenge posed by technology where every object we use can identify, locate sense its surroundings, compute and communicate.
Big Data
In a short time a huge bulk of emails, messages, face book posts can be made. Google searches can be performed, thousands of videos uploaded, leaving a large digital footprint.
Unfortunately, humans are the weakest links in the cybersecurity chain. Amateurs hack systems, but professionals hack people. The weakest link is our passwords, with which millions of social accounts, mails and banks accounts have been hacked. This is because people use insecure passwords.
Protection against Cyberattacks
A lot of cyberattacks can be avoided if we use certain guidelines. These are the ten most important guidelines we can and should follow.
1. Limit the amount of information that you disclose on social networking sites.
2. Don't establish relationships with strangers.
3. Don't believe online information blindly, as it could be misleading.
4. Private settings should be changed when you use new apps and limited information should be provided.
5. Applications that are suspicions should be avoided and settings on the computer or mobile modified to limit the amount of data that the application can have access to.
6. Be sure to secure your data because unsecured network can lead to loss of personal data.
7. Antivirus software should be used to safeguard your computers and other devices.
8. Passwords used should be strong and changed from time to time
9. Use different passwords for different social accounts because if one account is hacked other accounts will also be exposed to threats.
10. Proper authentication method should be used so that no one can access the details Multifactor authentication should be used like captcha, voice ID and finger scanning.
Conclusion
In today's social and economic environment, cyberattacks are a big challenge. As the world is going towards digitalization, risks as a result of this are also growing at a rapid pace. It is the responsibility of all of us to use cyberspace sensibly and with great responsibility. It is important to create awareness in the use of digital platforms through literacy. It is important for us to be digitally literate so that all of us are digitally safe. With development comes insecurities, and tackling these problems is the main concern. As the network for data sharing continue to grow, so do the risks attached to it.
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