We are living in a world of technology where data is most
precious than money and we are relay on them for most of our regular
activities.
Just imagine how you spend your single day normally, you
begin your day by texting with a lovely selfie on the social messaging app to
your loved ones. Paying bills and dues with your credit card and internet
banking service. At office you collaborate with your colleagues on live
projects as well as supports the clients with the help of internet , you like
to surprise your loved one by gifting her / him something through online shopping , and at the end of
the day you spend hours on social networking websites to chat with your friends
and family. From morning to evening we are dependent upon the internet and
communications gadgets like smartphone, computer ,tablets etc. to make use of
the cyberspace for an easy way to life. Apparently there is a dark part of the
cyberspace where malicious people are always trying to steal your confidential
information that you use yourself regularly over the internet such as IDs and
passwords, banking credentials, credit card details, documents and so on.
Now you might be thinking “ what will they do with all my
confidential stuffs? My bank account don’t have much money to steal, my credit
card has expired, I don’t have much to hide from social networking activities”
and blah! Well honestly these malicious
people can do lot of things that you can have never be imagined and in between
them you will be liable for all those activities that has been done by them. It
is tough to write almost every things
that these malicious people can do with your confidential data but I
have tried to dictate most of the common phenomenon on the present days and you
can be a victim of any of these given below.
- Data Theft
- Identity Theft
- Account Takeover
- Illegal / Unauthorized transfer of money
- Invading Privacy
- Stalking
- Use your computer as virus /bots server
- Disrupting critical infrastructure (Cyber Terrorism)
- Data Modification
- Cyber Pornography
- Financial Fraud..and much more
How to stay safe on internet?
Now the question is how to stay safe online? But before this
you should know how criminals and malicious persons get their dirty hands over
your data and confidentiality. There are several ways by which a person can
hack into your system and most of the common reasons are …
- Low investment
- Freely available of hacking and forensic tools
- Lack of user awareness
- Using of infected tools and software
- Using of outdated / unpatched OS and software
- Lack of basic understanding of IT security
- Low security configuration and so on.
Let me give you a real life example, suppose someone has
paid be to collect your internet banking credentials and credit card details
without physically meeting you face to face then what will I do? First of all I will go near the
dumpster of your house and search if you have left any old , tampered , Xerox copy
of any of government documents that resemble you identity and address proof, as
well as try to collect information as much as I can. I will visit your profile
in website like facebook or twitter and
collect your photo of front face . With this photo and information collected
before I will make a fake identity card as well as residential proof documents.
After this I will break the wifi security of your house and sniff in your
network and will collect every credentials you will type during loggin. In this
way I will capture your card and banking details while you will try to make
online payments. Now I have your credit card and banking details but to
complete any transaction online we have
to give OTP(one time password) which will be received in your cellphone. So to receive otp I have to get access to your
cellphone and for that I will lodge a FIR in local police station with the fake
id I made that I have lost this SIM card. Then I will submit the copy of FIR to
the telecom operator to give me a new SIM card with that number and your sim
card will be deactivated. What now? Now I will receive all the SMSs and calls
in the new SIM card and can do any transaction smoothly. Its your dooms day
now.
How to stay safe online?
- Use a good antivirus program and keep the database of antivirus updated to detect the signature of newly created virus quickly. Also check the firewall configuration that what is allowed and what is denied. If you don’t know how to configure firewall properly then have a quick look here
- Use a keyscrambler software in your system. It is very necessary because whenever anyone will try to sniff within your network he will get the scrambled text not any plain text.
- Do not download software from un-trusted sources and tools like cracks which may be infected with worms and malwares binded with it which it tough for any antivirus program to detect.
- Do not put much information in social networking websites like Facebook, Twitter etc.
- Always try to keep your Operating system updated and install the security patch-up which is release by OS manufacturer occasionally .
- Avoid emails related to Online lottery, Nigerian refugees , RBI etc. It’s a huge email and financial scam.
- Bank and other company will never call you and ask for your credit card details , banking credentials or one time password to tell. Malicious people will call you by pretending themselves like a banking officers and try to lure you by various way. Don’t get lured by them and avoid such calls.
- While surfing the internet understand the difference between a fake website and a legit website as the look alike. These legit websites are trying their best to keep their customers safe by using different methodologies such as captcha , OTP, SSL Layer and many more. Google about “PHISING DETECTION”
- Use a strong combination of password with upper letters, lower letters, numbers and special characters. Make such type of password that cannot be found in any dictionary .
As the technology is getting updated , the Hacker and
criminals are also finding and developing new ways to steal the confidential
data. It is better to always have
present of mind while you are online. Join the boot camps and meet up organized
by government and other organizations on awareness of cyber security , you will
learn a lot of things. These tips are not enough to defend yourself completely
but will help you with common issues faced by people every day.
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