Cyber Security Facts and Misconceptions

If you are not up to date on the happenings in this internet space, you are likely to find yourself in a lot of trouble. The fact is, you, me, my business, your business, our businesses need cyber awareness and security to keep us out of the lurks of hackers by barricading loopholes and security vulnerabilities that could expose our networks, computers, mobile devices, smart devices, servers and all have any iota of internet exposure. Malicious software like trojan horses, worms, ransomware, spyware, and other cyber-related adversities are always going to come whether invited or uninvited. The best you can help yourself with is to ward off the those long accumulated cyber security myths affecting your head and get on with becoming SUPER cyber aware.

Here are a few cyber security misconceptions that we all have but in reality, they are untrue.

• Only Rich People and Big Companies are Likely to Become the Targets of Attackers Anyone who has access to the internet is a threat. Know this! To cybercriminals, every device is valuable. Thinking you have less information, fame and money therefore, you cannot be a target is wrong. The information available in your device can open ways through which attackers can penetrate to the next person which could be your family, friends, business associates and even your business networks. cyber-criminals don’t need to actually go after you, to go after you. You see, programs now exist that automatically search the web for vulnerable sites and devices. In fact, an unprotected device accessing the internet will probably become infected with malicious software in under half an hour. If your phone or computer is weak, these dark programs are going to get alerted first. Hacking is a cheap breakfast which could be served to anyone.

• I Will Know it Once my Device Becomes Infected This could be somewhat true perhaps in those days but it is a myth now that technology is advancing on a daily. Some of these malwares are silent. They may never slow down your device or give you notifications of their presence. They would just sit tight in your device and carry out the functions for which they were sent and you would not even get know of that. It can take months or even years to realize that your phone or computer has been under an attack. Some of these malwares are advanced that you can not easily detect their presence until they have secured all they need to sting you.

• My Browser Will Protect Me The truth is that there hasn’t been created a browser or operating system that can completely protect you from all malware incursions or hackings. All you can do is constantly update your web applications. These updates provide new features that not only enhance user-ability but also close loopholes for vulnerability.

• You Need to Download Something to Become Infected Once again, that time is long past. Traitorous programs can secretly infect your computer upon visiting an insecure site even some supposed “secure” sites, HTTPS and the Keypad stuffs are not 100% secure. Using public Wi-Fi connections, infested USB sticks, phishing emails, smishing texts, malicious links etc. can expose your device.

• I Just Need to Make Sure That I Only Open Emails from People or Organizations that I Know Rosy’s device may have been attacked. She may have found out about it or may not. I know Rosy right? She’s my friend after all and we have an ongoing communication via email. Let’s say her email gets compromised and I do not know about it. I would just innocently go ahead and open her disguised mail or maybe download an attachment that may have been loaded with certain viruses which could make my own device get attacked as well.

• I have anti-virus installed; therefore, my device is protected. Well, I would say this is true in some aspects but not true in every sense. It is one thing to install an anti-virus in your device, it is another thing to always update your anti-virus, it is even a bigger deal to stay careful and around security tight always. These software companies are always updating their software applications and programs to cover for vulnerabilities which the previous one did not cover for. In the same light, viruses and other malicious software are also getting updated all the time to be able to bypass your security. Other non-virus malwares like keyloggers, trojan horses could trap you. You never can tell the front an attacker can come in from.

• No One Can Guess My Password This is not true, passing your password authentication can be that simple. You might be surprised just how simple most people’s passwords are. The reason is obvious: A lot of people at this age still use simple passwords they can remember quickly like birthdays, phone numbers, names or even use one password across different accounts and platform. The danger is that these hackers are smart people, once they can figure out one, they can use it to crack through a lot of accounts. Even password guessing works well-nigh. Once an attacker is able to figure out or bruteforce in. Your account and information could go in a blink. Advanced Malwares like keylogger can easily record your keystrokes from your keyboard and those secret passwords may not be secret to an attacker.

In summary, these cyber security thingies that we all have are not real. Getting out of these illusions and getting cyber aware is the first step towards your cyber maturity, protection and security. Numerically, 58% of cyber attackers target small businesses. 84% of cyberattacks occur due to human errors, our own fault. 60% of data breaches are majorly carried out by insiders consciously or unconsciously. 81% of data breaches are due to weak, stolen, and default user passwords.tha