Re-engineer your cyber consciousness

"War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength."

This narrative was prophesied in the iconic book - “1984” by George Orwell. Published back in 1949, he had accurately predicted that our ignorance would be the strength for "Big Brother". Eerily, it is all coming true now, with cyber-criminals leveraging our weaknesses against us. Right now, there isn’t just one but multiple ‘big brothers’ who have come to surround us. To put this in perspective - An average household in the US has experienced approximately 104 cybersecurity threats each month, according to a recent report by Comcast. If we assume that each house has around 8 - 12 connected devices (going up to 33 devices in case of HNIs), this statistic is more than worrisome. The average consumer is not aware of the dos and donts of digital security, let alone know about the 90% of the internet which they do not access. The deep and dark web has an option of ‘Hacker as a Service’. You can actually sign up for it on a portal, the payment is only after the service has been satisfactorily completed and it is even followed up by a ‘feedback form’ and a discount voucher for referrals!

You may call it utopia, but we need to strive to make the internet a safer place for everyone.

To err is human, but...to err repeatedly without learning from the mistakes is foolish. 

With the internet penetrating our lives in every imaginable way, we are more dependent on it than anything else. Is anything in our control or do we merely survive with a ‘sense of control’? There have been almost 16B records breached in 2019 alone and the number could be far higher for 2020. However, has the average person taken this into cognizance while browsing the internet, booking a Uber, ordering food or visiting an online doctor’s clinic?

Unfortunately, they haven’t... Take the example of the most basic aspect of cyber-hygiene; the humble password: ‘123456’ has been the most common password for the last five years, exposing people to cyber attacks more than 20 million times in 2020 alone, according to password management service NordPass!

There are so many forums for redressal after a cyber attack but so few to improve personal digital hygiene to prevent it. Cyber crime is one of the biggest threats to humanity and Gallup’s research has shown consumers agree. The average person worries more regularly about the hacking of personal data (71%) and identity theft (67%) than non-cyber crime, such as robbery (25%) or assault (20%). Despite this, there is no one-stop solution to address this crucial aspect of our lives. Is the news, online sources and the one-off cybersecurity training enough to bypass the tactics leveraged by cyber criminals? If it was, then 2020 would not have been the worst year so far, in terms of cybersecurity and 90% of all cyber crime would not have a 'human' element associated.

Clearly, there is a massive gap in how we, as consumers or end-users, navigate the internet. No-one really taught our current digitally-native generation how to use the internet safely, let alone our parents or older relatives. These are also the very people who are an employee at an MNC or the CEO of an MSME - becoming critical for enterprise cybersecurity. How do we ensure they are safe and their data is secured...thereby ensuring our businesses are safe? 

The power of collective cyber-consciousness is untapped

Digital marketing through social media is aeons ahead when it comes to personalization. Take the example of the advertisements that reach you when you’re scrolling through your Facebook or Instagram feed.

In the same way, we need to make cyber-consciousness intuitive and personalized for every individual. The way we quantify Intelligence and Emotional Quotient, we need to measure the Cyber Quotient of humans. If measured dynamically and in real-time, wouldn’t it be an asset for homes and businesses, nations and ultimately the entire world to have a re-engineered cyber- consciousness? 

Orwell also said, “Nothing was your own except the few cubic centimeters inside your skull.”

Let us use what’s only and only ours to keep it that way. 

I recently shared my thoughts with Dark Reading on the same.