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Proliferation of the Internet
Big Data, the Internet of Things, Smart Home, Smart Watch, Google, Facebook—these are the common terms we hear not only from the tech world but even from the common public. These technologies brought us mobility, convenience, reliability and efficiency in the every day tasks that we do.
When Sir Tim Berners-Lee invented the world wide web in 1989, innovations in the information technology since then were unprecedented. Larry Page and Sergey Brin soon founded Google which revolutionized the way we interact with data ranging from instantly finding a vast amount of information about a certain topic to navigating the entire world. Facebook, which was founded by Mark Zuckerberg on 2004, revolutionized the way we connect and socialize with people around the world. Uber made our travels much easier and more convenient.
And right now, giant tech companies are racing towards achieving the smartest self-driving cars that will soon replace human drivers.
Increasing threats to Security and Privacy
Although these technologies improved our lives, they also brought us lots of concerns mostly on security and privacy. Facebook and Google for example collect a lot of information about us including our addresses, our dates of bilrth, the people who are close to us, our co-associates and a lot more sensitive data that can either be used against us or used by other people for self-interest.
There are lots of threats waiting for us in the cloud. The most common of them are computer viruses, phishing attacks and social engineers. Let us take a look about these threats and how can we avoid them as much as possible.
Types of threats
Computer Viruses
Have you encountered an instance wherein you cannot open your files because they were replaced with shortcuts for an unknown reason? The culprit for this is a virus commonly known as Trojan. What it tries to do is it hides the files (regardless whether the files are 900 megabytes or 1 kilobyte in size) and replaces them with shortcut files (usually less than a kilobyte in size) which are already useless since you cannot open them. Fortunately, there are available resources on how to fix this problem.
Phishing attacks
Phishing attacks are probably one of the most popular internet threats brewing in recent years. The most common are spam emails sent to a vast number of random people, the intention is to steal you of confidential information such as credit card numbers, birthdates, etc.
In our office, I always receive phishing emails containing legitimate information like an email that I received from a disguised external consultant requesting me to process their request by clicking a certain link attached in the email. I was careful enough to prove the authenticity of the email by scanning the email address and the Company logo of his signature including his telephone number. When I found out that the email is a phishing email, I immediately marked it as spam and reported it to our IT Security Department.
Social Engineers
We probably do not hear much about social engineers but they pose an increasing threat to the public's security. These culprits are very skilled in deceiving people. Their strategy is to obtain an information about you and use them in deceiving you to do something unfavorable like sharing your credit card information or even harassing you.
Risk can only be reduced but not eliminated
There is always a bad side in every good thing. Risk is present everywhere even in the simplest thing we do everyday like commuting to work. It cannot be eliminated. However, it can be reduced. Being aware of the said risk and their impact to your security is one. If you are concerned with your privacy, don't give too much information about yourself and your daily activities in social media sites like Facebook. Remember, as Billy Graham said, "Once you've lost your privacy, you realize you've lost an extremely valuable thing."
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