Cyber Security Awareness

All of us have become more dependent on the Internet for most of our daily activities. The Internet has changed the way of life and given us many advantages as well as disadvantages. We use the internet for communication, information search, online banking & other services and running businesses too. The Internet has touched upon all aspects of our life, hence also made us vulnerable from all kinds of threats too. It is important for all of us to keep our digital life safe from cyber attackers.

Identity theft is the most common internet fraud, which is an act of wrongful obtaining & misusing personal information for gaining bank or credit accounts or social media accounts. Attackers gain access to social media accounts and misuse it to defame or use Identify proofs like PAN card, Aadhar card to steal money and cause harm to the victim. Attackers do play psychological tricks like phishing, vishing and smishing with the minds of users to trap them with lucrative offer like call/email/SMS of winning the lottery, to scare the victim by informing them about blocking of their credit/debit card or fake offer of a job.

Social media has become a new way of communication and sharing about our lives. Public sharing of personal information and photographs with updates on whereabouts can possess a threat of physical assault or robbery. Hence, appropriate use of social media is categorized for close friends and strangers by use of privacy settings, the use of incognito mode and blocking cookies. One should always avoid giving location details and access to personal information to any downloaded mobile applications too. Cyber Bullying & Cyberstalking also very prominently occur on digital platforms and attackers bully or stalk with threatening, abusive, harmful content with the intention to cause embarrassment or humiliation of victims.

Virus, malware or backdoor software can enter the Computer through external devices like pen drive, by downloading video, games, music files or free software from untrusted sources. This malicious software can remain hidden and cause harm like data corruption/deletion and data theft.