With the ongoing development of the Internet infrastructure and its widespread popularity, many more individuals among the global population are ‘getting online’. This could be for entertainment, social relations, or professional activity. Simply stated, being ‘online’ means having a single software application or ‘App’ installed on an IT device connected to the Internet. Although, installing an App on your personal device may seem to be a voluntary or optional matter, once installed, the App can behave in a manner beyond your control. Upon installation, most Apps require permission to access device resources that are normally granted by users without considering the implications. An infected App on any one device in a network can easily propagate to other devices within the network and beyond. Last year, a well-known US university had to pay hackers over eleven million dollars following a successful ‘Ransomware Attack’ to avoid publication of its compromised data. So, while the challenges of providing security to your personal or corporate data are numerous, it is the ethical and legal responsibility of all stakeholders to ensure compliance with certain basic security measures enumerated below:
- Avoid saving or downloading ‘sensitive’ information on your devices. Ideally, save it on a detachable device if you must.
- Disable network connectivity (Wi-Fi) when a device is not being used. Simply click on/off on the Wi-Fi icon on your device.
- Install security software and watch out for any suspicious activity or ‘malware’ regularly.
- Be vigilant about your passwords, especially those that are used for your email and financial transactions.
- Use double authentication (OTP) with passwords wherever possible.
- Remember that if anything ‘can’ happen, it will happen.
It happened to me in the summer of 2019 when my PC was attacked and compromised by a hacker demanding a ransom in the form of Bitcoins. Luckily, I had a ‘backup’ of most of my user data.
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