Tech Watch 2: Past and Current Online Defense Innovations

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Trends in Cyber Security

 The birth of the world wide web or the internet has brought a lot of positive changes in our life. It has contributed to a fast, accurate and up to date information technology which has brought us the comfort and convenience of doing our personal and business transactions remotely with a click of a mouse or a single touch on a screen. One perfect example is internet banking. You need not to appear to a bank to update your savings account or spend long hours in a queue to pay for your monthly bills. Despite these changes in technology, cyber crimes also are leveling up to our surprise. The more there are countermeasures to fraud or theft, cybercriminals also study and create alarming and surprising inventions or discoveries to reach their end of penetrating even the most secure and obscure facility. If  IT experts are not brave enough to face these challenges, then industrial companies and even highly sensitive government agencies would be in a chaotic scenario, causing people to panic and create civil disobedience. In order to stop, avoid or minimize the upcoming threats of cyberterrorism, here is a list of what experts are doing in their respective areas of responsibility:

1.     Using and enhancing advanced encryption methods. A system administrator could actually eliminate or remove from the system voice activated passwords or permanently omit from the computer system the option of showing the actual letters or characters as a user types on screen. Only the credible user has the capacity to know and familiarize his/her password and using the asterisk to represent a specific character on the keyboard is safer than the usual practice of doing it. Configuring and maintaining passwords periodically in a particular system would discourage the would-be attackers.

2.    Implementing a strict policy in monitoring and double-checking the usage of internal data.  It is possible that a system administrator or a senior security officer may go rogue due to a psychological reason or to an emotional disturbance. If this happens, then the problem would be from an inside job perpetrated by the offender. The technology in the analysis of behavior by human resource officers detects early signs of a misdemeanor by employees. This will help also in knowing a security breach in a system just like an unauthorized download of classified information that may blow the cover of an intelligence branch of government.

3.    Having a safe and systematic approach to cloud computing. We cannot deny the fact that this activity has been giving big business firms and companies a lot of monetary rewards in the last decade. However, there are a lot of security issues about cloud computing which includes the fact that you don’t have total control of the data you saved or stored because, at any time, somebody could use it for other purposes, whether good or bad intentions. This is also called an undedicated network which means there is no guarantee that online scam or fraud can be avoided.

4.    Assessing and analyzing software risk and vulnerabilities. Only God is perfect. If it’s made by humans, do not expect that there are no flaws or weaknesses. On the issues of safety and security, companies should upgrade their computer systems so that they will not be subject to cyber attack. Numerous product testing and evaluation will help in the assurance of producing and manufacturing quality and superior products both for small and big markets.

5.    Learning, developing and implementing far more advanced technologies to fight or combat experienced spyware and malware geniuses. The human mind is really interesting and intriguing. A familiar maxim states that a little knowledge is dangerous. If you are a brilliant information technology expert or an intelligent software writer or developer, you surely have many counterparts from all over the world who are also trying to challenge your experience and expertise. Imagine the offenders utilizing program removal tools undetected by your security system or evading a virus scan unnoticed. The outcome will be devastating. It’s like survival of the wisest and the fittest.

The main objective of this article is to thwart several or numerous cyber attacks in the future. We are already witnesses to hacking and phishing which had cause identity and property theft in the past. Even the software on our smartphones has been already intruded because some software used are inferior and are prone to internal modifications even by an ordinary computer technician. We cannot stop these cyber criminals but at least minimize the threat by way of activating our first line of defense which is careful study or research especially on online security issues and concerns.