The Issues Surrounding Our Cybersecurity

One time, a person had gotten a virus on their computer. They were asked if they had an up-to-date operating system if they had a good password, and how they got the virus. They explained that their operating system was outdated, their password was their first name, and they remember clicking a link for a “free phone.” These are common ways a person could get hit by a cyber attack. Although people being lazy is the cause of everyday cyber attacks, which can steal information, there are many ways to prevent these types of attacks.

To know how to prevent an attack, however, you must know what a cyber attack is. A cyber attack, also referred to as a computer network attack (Techopedia), is where a hacker, thief, or anyone else, gets inside your hardware device, which can include phone, computer, game consoles, and any other electronic device. Once inside, they can see, discover, and steal information, such as credit card numbers, social security numbers, or any information you put on cyberspace (Techopedia). They can download more viruses onto a computer, delete anything on your device, or buy any items under your name These are only the effects of a regular type of cyber attack, called “Malware.” (Fruhlinger)

Malware is a type of attack, which even though it is one of the most common cyber attacks (Melnick,) it is one of the most dangerous attacks. It is associated with NotPeyta, one of the most devastating cyber attacks (Fruhlinger) and is mostly known for theft and ransomware attacks. There are other types of cyber attacks, such as Denial-of-service (Dos) and Phishing. Both of which include spamming. These attacks can be classified as either “direct” or “indirect” (Amoroso) It is only when the attack targets the nation’s important government sources, the emergency services, etc. when it is considered direct. All of these attacks and some people still wonder: what is the purpose of this? What are the hackers getting out of this? Mostly, the intention is cyber theft (Day) The attackers are looking to get something financial-wise most of the time, and money is needed to cover the time and money put into attacks. Other times, attackers want to spread cyber-paranoia (Day)

Cyber-paranoia is when fear and paranoia is spread as a result of cyber attacks. This mostly occurs on social media, but could other places. Sometimes, a targeted cyber attack (Sood, Enbony) occurs because of personal reasons we do not know, but sometimes, it could occur between nations. Sometimes, the attacker just enjoys the satisfaction of hijacking another device, commonly the use of a Dos attack. All of the wants by the hacker are commonly fulfilled by us, and here’s why. Technology has been advancing, but we are still as predictable as ever. There is one thing that would keep the attacker at bay: the password. Though our biggest defense, it is also our biggest weakness. Most people use predictable passwords, such as “letmein” “iloveyou” “123456” etc. (Ward, Wall) Other times, we try to make a long and unpredictable password thinking we can cope with it. Unfortunately, we overestimate ourselves and forget our password. Sometimes, we can find it again, but only because we hide it where any person with common sense can find it, making that a risk. Other times, we lazily give up and look to the IT generated temporary passwords. The problem is, almost everyone does that, meaning not only the IT passwords work a short time, but there could be virtually hundreds of people in small business using the same password.

We never are aware of the source of a virus: a cleverly disguised link. People carelessly click on links saying, for example, an auction or a free phone, like earlier. They don’t read the actual URL but see the positive side and click. So, even though people being lazy cyber-weaklings is the main reason for attacks, there are ways we can be smarter.

Password security is crucial to cybersecurity. To be smarter with your passwords, don’t use short passwords, but use passwords that you can cope with, such as about eight characters or longer. Use a password with something only you would know, most likely not a regular name. Use a substantial amount of numbers and also letters. Try to use different passwords for different websites. However, your password, strong or not, won’t protect from a virus. To prevent viruses, try to sniff out the phony links by looking at the URL and not entering too much information on any website. If a virus happens to try to attack, having a firewall helps a lot with that. Sometimes, however, some of us aren’t as smart as others and get attacked.

People get super paranoid whenever a threat or an attack is detected. Fortunately, there are things that you can do just in case an attack happens. You want to cancel any purchases made during the attack that you did not make because that was probably made by the attacker. You will definitely want to change your passwords during or after an attack to prevent a future attack, and it would also be a good idea to report the attack to the Dept. of Homeland security or FBI. Just like the man from earlier, every single day someone gets attacked because of a bonehead mistake. Unfortunately, even though we can prevent these attacks, no one is entirely safe. There is no “one size fits all” strategy for cybersecurity. Even though we can’t fully prevent these, we can prevent them by a large amount using many strategies. How are you going to use smart cybersecurity?

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