Many people are not aware that they are making it very easy for cyber criminals to invade their privacy.  This typically happens when convenience is prioritized over the more critical matter of security.  People relax their guard as they choose the easiest path to go about their online transactions.  Let’s face it, the use of the Internet is a risk in itself but we multiply that risk when we fail to consider the factors that make us susceptible to fraud and theft.

Protecting our most basic online defenses is a primary concern.  User names and passwords are our first line of defense but they tend to be compromised by the tendency to use the same names and passwords for all online transactions.  The main problem here is that we make it easy for cyber criminals  to penetrate our transactions in the same manner as we give easy access to ourselves.  The practice can admittedly save time during the initial stage but the probable resulting loss requires more time and effort to correct.  Identity theft can be a traumatic experience both in the physical and emotional aspects.

Cyber criminals are at their work without people realizing it.  They are constantly trying to discover passwords by fishing for personal information such as names and dates related to family or work.  They can also try to steal passwords saved from memory. They can even be looking into various word and number permutations that will provide them the key to the doors of your private world.

A little effort towards making yourself less predictable to cyber thieves goes a long way.  It can be readily understood why some people persist on unsafe online practices especially if they don’t have prior bad experience in transacting online.  Due to the sheer amount of information we are encouraged not to put in writing for our own protection,  we try to help our memory by choosing letters and numbers that we can easily recall.  That is the very weakness which cyber criminals are looking out for.

The hatred felt is seen in the rising occurrences of these same people becoming the entry point for attacks on corporate networks when they visit social sites to pass on the otherwise boring day. This is also counterproductive for their attention to work and the other nuances such as physical security and IT security is so much a threat that it is under study on how to improve the working conditions for these people. They are distracted and left to do almost anything they please which is where the security gap seems to be, using the corporate network to access social sites to which they are members of. Even the installation of hardware and software security measures cannot guarantee security coverage at all angles for the main security risk is still the human behind the keyboard who does the typing and not on the structure of the system itself. It might be helpful to get them out more often to allow their facilities more practice letting the steam and pressures/boredom to dissipate. Role rotation may be a key but is not always feasible for there are certain knowledge associated issues that have to be addressed to be able to do that. Training and re-training people allows them to sharpen skills and add new knowledge to their already bored lives.

Big business has been reminded again and again that complacency is it’s worst enemy and they have failed again and again at the area. Why? Well first, total protection is almost always imperfect and somebody out there with enough intent and resources can break-in however expensive the protection methods may be. Next is that the best systems for protection is always the ones that cost too much yet they still remain vulnerable and hackable. Contrary to most ad’s you see in print, the internet or your Television there is no one true solution to protection, for if the hardware and software measures succeed in protecting you, the human behind the computer/s are always the biggest risk. That is why even the most expensive solutions are used in conjunction with other solutions to provide the best of both worlds combining physical and software solutions hoping that combination will be enough protection from the continuous influx of attacks from the web and elsewhere. Encryption is nice but it takes a lot of computing power to implement making it too expensive for implementation on all levels of the company. All of these high-tech solutions and hardware would be nothing if the people using the various computer systems in the said organization fail to use them so the weakest link in every system is still the human. Strict adherence and compliance is the key with systems that process information somewhat autonomously already in use doing the searching and classification of information without the user’s input. This uses the latest in Artificial Intelligence with minimal intervention or input from the users.

Biometrics are security systems that are based on the differences the human body manifests in terms of eye structure, facial features and now vein geometry. We’ve all heard of DNA or the so-called blueprint for life and the way it makes each and every human different from everyone else on this earth (well, except for some genetic disorders and diseases that changes the DNA makeup). That is what biometrics takes advantage of as a source of a very unique key or method of identifying one from another person.

Your fingerprint is mapped when it is initially scanned into a computer system which convert’s your analog (actual) print into a digital map that is as unique as you are an individual. Iris scanners take into account the differences the iris has from each and every individual (through the use of a low powered light and scanner to obtain a picture of the eye’s iris which is also unique). Voice recognition takes into account, the differences our voices have from everybody else also converting it into a digital map or password of sorts. Vein geometry, uses a thermal imaging camera to take a picture of your hand or whole body which is sensitive to heat showing all the blood vessels which show as hotspots thus giving you a unique id of sorts as that is also mapped and converted into digital form. All of the above biometrics systems rely on our individual differences which are quite unique to us and add onto it, other more basic security measures such as a physical key (password, key or other devices) to give the ultimate security system preventing intrusion.

But one issue that has been heard all throughout the world is on their reliability. You can monitor various activities but then what? What action would you take? If you do, would it be enough to avoid any accidents that may suddenly occur.

Apparently, many establishments just want to avoid the trouble. Mischief lingers anywhere these days and the best thing that you can do is to try and avoid them. Compared to the early days, tighter security through videos allows the place owners to monitor abnormal and suspicious behaviors to which the proper steps to avoid them can be done.

The list goes as far as advanced security measures such as the high security of sealed places where new technology as thumbprints, eye scanners and card swiping for better monitoring of accessing people limits the list of potential breaches in a certain area.

This has helped a lot and in times where something unfortunate may happen, investigators can have a better time catching culprits thanks to these hidden monitors. These days, that is why most mischievous people have made it a point to survey before attacking. Sadly, some of them have found a way to get around CCTV security as well.

I was only able to fit in two tips in the previous post but no worries, here are more things for you to look at.

To subscribe or unsubscribe? What to do?
You know those e-mail messages informing you of one thing or another and then at the bottom it says “To unsubscribe to this service, click on this link…” or something like that? Well, many are legit but here’s the thing – this tactic is also being used to get you to click on the link and gather information from you. What you should do, instead of immediately unsubscribing, is to first double check if you really have subscribed to that service. Otherwise, you just might find more spam mails in your Inbox. If you’re unsure, just mark the address as spam so that it can be filtered in the future.

Guard “important” e-mail addresses
Some people guard their phone numbers zealously. They would only give their numbers to people they know very well and people who they are ok with contacting them. How come, when it comes to e-mail, it seems that people are less guarded? It shouldn’t be the case. You don’t know who will end up knowing your e-mail address and start sending you stuff that you don’t need or worse, malware. If I were you, I’d set up another web e-mail account that is separate from your main e-mail account.

Remember: There is no such thing as absolute privacy
Whatever you code into your computer and send through e-mail is never ever really totally private. Just bear this in mind when writing anything. It will keep you safe.

How often do you use your personal e-mail? How about your work e-mail? I am willing to bet a huge sum that you can’t even answer those questions because you know that you spend a HUGE amount of time on e-mails. You spend so much time that you can’t even track it – but that’s how it is with most people today. E-mail has become part of everyone’s lives that it is not even given a second thought.

When it comes to security, however, we should give e-mail more than a second thought. Do you know just how many security pitfalls there are when it comes to e-mails? LOTS.

Here, take a look at some of these tips and you’ll realize that you haven’t really been paying attention to e-mail security.

When sending to a mailing list or to many people, use BCC.
B-what, you may ask. You know the two other fields below the TO field? One is CC (carbon copy) and the other is BCC (blind carbon copy). Using BCC means the recipients in the list will not see the e-mail addresses of the other recipients. This is particularly important in the eyes of the recipients who may not want unknown people finding out their e-mail addresses. Perfect situation to use this: when sending forwarded whatnots through e-mail.

Don’t be trigger happy.
That is, when you receive e-mails with links in them, asking you to immediately click on the link for one reason or another, DON’T. Even if you are worried to death that PayPal might close your account for no reason, DO NOT CLICK ON THAT LINK. The chances are that it’s not PayPal. If you really want to make sure, open another window and type the URL manually. Whatever you do, don’t click that link.

According to a recent survey conducted in the UK, mobile phone users do not really pay that much attention to security. IT Pro has this story:

Results from a survey of UK mobile phone users has found too many of us are playing fast and loose with sensitive data stored on our mobile phones.

More alarmingly though, it also found that the majority (99 per cent) of those questioned also used their mobiles for business use, creating a potentially weak security link to their employers’ corporate systems.

So what kind of sensitive data is stored in mobile phones? I think that you can answer this yourself but let’s take a look at some of them:

• Bank account details
• PINs
• Passwords
• Social security numbers

More than these things, mobile phone users also admitted to accessing and storing business data on their phones. This includes downloading spreadsheets and other business documents.

The worst part is that despite the fact that this information is stored in mobile phones, the units themselves do not have passwords and other forms of security measures.

The bottom line? At the very least, we have to put passwords on our mobile phones. Even better, enable encryption.

Photo courtesy of http://www.flickr.com/photos/osde-info/763025492/sizes/s/