India now has over 354 million Internet users, but more than half of these are living on the edge with little awareness about cyber security.
A recent report on India, compiled by Norton Cyber security, says that more than half of this country’s Internet population has been affected by cyber fraud or know of someone who has. Most are not aware about privacy and security or just don’t care. Sadly, it is the youth, or those born in the digital era, who are the most reckless online.
Most youngsters feel they are “not interesting enough” to be a target of cyber-attacks and don’t think twice before sharing passwords or indulging in careless behaviour online. Tomorrow somebody could steal your identity and implicate you in a major crime. Hackers could use your email, phone or even your home WiFi to sell drugs or guns and before you know it, you will have the police knocking on your door.
One problem is using Facebook to log in to various sites. The Vonvon.me quiz doing the rounds on this social media (shared 16 million times) has become a privacy nightmare. It requires you to provide a significant amount of personal information before it scans all your posts and stores the data. Eventually, it throws up the most used words by you during 2015. Nice way to waste your time, but beware of such quizzes or any activity that require you to sign in using your Facebook credentials.
Almost everyone uses VLC player to watch videos, but most of us do not update these apps regularly. Those who don’t should be cautious because most of us download pirated videos using Bit Torrent or similar software. Hackers can hide malicious code in these video files and take over your machine.
Windows 7, 8 and 10 all have a built-in tool called PowerShell that’s intended to replace the Command Prompt. But hackers can take full control of machines and corporate servers by sending a single clickable link that exploits PowerShell’s vulnerabilities. The only way out is to update your Windows regularly.
Keep your computer safe by using anti-virus and anti-malware software. Choose your password wisely. Delete emails from senders you don’t know. And above all don’t click on attachments or links from unknown sources. Before clicking, hover the mouse over the link to see its destination.
You now have a chance to meet the experts and ask questions on how to stay secure online. A workshop will be conducted at Infocom, the annual technology event organised by the ABP group at ITC Sonar hotel, by Abir Atarthy and Sandeep Sengupta, co-founders, Indian School Of Ethical Hacking (www.isoeh.com), at ITC Sonar Bangla, on December 5. In addition, there will be a hacking competition on December 4 at the Indian School of Ethical Hacking campus at SDF Bldg, Room No 335, Sec-V, Calcutta 700091. Many prizes are to be won. Reserve your seats at bookmyshow.com. Look for Infocom under Events.
Send in your computer- related problems to askdoss@abpmail.com with bits&bytes as the subject line
