Business

Cybersecurity Strategies Of Remaining Safer Online

Published

1 year ago

December 28, 2023

Basic Background – The subject matter of cybersecurity strategies of remaining safer online, could not have come at a more auspicious time than now. The reality today’s world is increasing reliance or dependence on Information Communication Technology (ICT) for virtually every process and programme.

Vital data relating to our business processes, investments, governments, security, future aspirations and others are usually stored away in the computer hardwares, an effective tool of ICT.

ICT has therefore become the life wire of organisations, business, political associations, security outfits and structures and general processes.

Aside wide office usage, data from Statista a business intelligence resource, shows that in 2019, almost half of private households worldwide had a personal computer (PC) at home.

In Nigeria, the PC penetration rate is different, with a third of households having a computer, although the share of households with a personal computer in developed countries was closer to 80 percent. Generally however, computer usage and internet access are becoming more prevalent.

These are well captured by Adel Haidar, in Computers In Our Daily Life, published in International Journal of Computer Science and Information Technology Research”.

“The computer has brought about a quantum leap in our daily life, and dependence on computer has increased to occupy an essential position in every home and every company. All transactions in various fields have been shifted to be digitalised or to be electronic, as education depends on computers and technological development to improve its performance and results”

**A lot of illegal activities can go on online that warrants cybersecurity**

Increased reliance or dependence on ICT no doubt has its implications, in the sense that critical data stored in cyberspace could compromised, either intentionally or through system failures, hence agaisn, Cybersecurity: Strategies Of Remaining Safer Online has become important.

It is not just a reminder systems are under increasing security threats, but the imperatives of adopting counter procedures and measures..

ICT Security in context

In a position paper he presented recently at a forum of writers and tech enthusiasts, Mr Osilama Aliu, a technologist defined ICT Security as a set of cybersecurity strategies put in place to prevent unauthorised access to organisational assets such as computers, networks, and data.

He highlighted obvious advantages and threats, as well as ways of checking these.

What are the threats to ICT Security?

“Cybersecurity Strategies Of Remaining Safer Online” observes that threats can come in different variations to infect network devices, including:

Ransomware
Spyware
Viruses

Types of ICT Security

Network security

Network security prevents unauthorised or malicious users from getting inside your network. This ensures that usability, reliability, and integrity are uncompromised. This type of security is necessary to prevent a hacker from accessing data inside the network. It also prevents them from negatively affecting your users’ ability to access or use the network.

Network security becomes difficult with increase in the number of endpoints and migration to public cloud.

Internet security

Internet security involves the protection of information that is sent and received in browsers, as well as network security involving web-based applications. These protections are designed to monitor incoming internet traffic for malware as well as unwanted traffic. This protection may come in the form of firewalls, antimalware, and antispyware.

Endpoint security

Endpoint security provides protection at the device level. Devices that may be secured by endpoint security include cell phones, tablets, laptops, and desktop computers. Endpoint security will prevent your devices from accessing malicious networks that may be a threat to your organisation. Advanced malware protection and device management software are examples of endpoint security.

Cloud Security

Applications, data, and identities are moving to the cloud, meaning users are connecting directly to the Internet and are not protected by the traditional security stack. Cloud security can help secure the usage of software-as-a-service (SaaS) applications and the public cloud. A cloud-access security broker (CASB), secure Internet gateway (SIG), and cloud-based unified threat management (UTM) can be used for cloud security.

Application security

With application security, applications are specifically coded at the time of their creation to be as secure as possible to help ensure they are not vulnerable to attacks. This added layer of security involves evaluating the code of an app and identifying the vulnerabilities that may exist within the software.

Cyber Attack Methods: What Attacks Exist?

Cybercrime is constantly changing, and new methods are being developed to identify and exploit security holes. In general, ICT Security is asymmetric: to significantly damage a company’s operating procedures, a cyber-criminal must successfully exploit a single weakness. On the other hand, companies have to ensure comprehensive protection to safeguard their ICT security.

Advanced Persistent Threats (A.P.T.s)

Advanced Persistent Threats (APT) means “advanced and persistent threat”. Hackers use a lot of time, effort and resources to penetrate a system. First, they infiltrate a computer to spy on internal processes, and from there, they sabotage the entire network. This gives cyber-criminals permanent access to a network; from there, they can spread more malware to attack the entire system.

Malware

Malware can be any type of malicious program that can cause damage to infected systems. These include worms, viruses, Trojans and ransomware programs. WannaCry, Petya and Ryuk, in particular, have demonstrated in recent years that malware can bring companies to the brink of closure or even insolvency if I.T. Security is inadequate.

Phishing

Phishing is an attempt at fraud carried out electronically, in which a fake email is sent to the recipient, who often does not recognise it as such at first. This method of cyber-attack, in the form of a professional-looking email, is often designed to trick the recipient into revealing confidential data.

How To Be Safe Online

A critical aspect of the Cybersecurity Strategies Of Remaining Safer Online, is indeed how to remain safer online. Here are our submissions”

1) Don’t post personal information online – like your address, email address or mobile number.

2) Think carefully before posting pictures or videos of yourself. Once you’ve put a picture of yourself online, most people can see it and may be able to download it; it’s not just yours anymore.

3) Keep your privacy settings as high as possible

4) Never give out your passwords

5) Don’t befriend people you don’t know

6) Don’t meet up with people you’ve met online. Speak to your parent about the people you want to meet up

7) Remember that not everyone online is who they say they are

8) Think carefully about what you say before you post something online

9) Respect other people’s views, even when you don’t agree with their views.