EDUCATION AREAS | security

Education Areas

There are many topics that are covered in the world of cybersecurity, but are never studied unless something goes wrong. Thankfully, we can be enlightened by such topics before anything goes awry. Some of the following are just a few of the areas of study in the world if cyber security.

Anti-Malware

Many individuals believe that an antivirus program is the cure all for any type of intrusion that could take place on their computer. Unfortunately, this is not the case because people are forgetting about other types of intrusions such as Spyware, Rootkits, etc., that go undetected by antivirus programs.

Also, many believe you need to pay yearly subscriptions to antivirus/anti-malware vendors to be protected. A solid defense can be composed of freeware programs to ensure your computer and other personal computing equipment is safe from attack.

Internet Content Filtering

The Internet can be a great resource of knowledge and information, but it can also be place where disturbing and vial information lurk. Internet Content Filtering can help individuals keep a lid on the nasty things that could take over your hardware and software and prevent unwanted images from popping up on your computer screen.

Some Internet Content Filtering software is expensive and complicated to setup. Fortunately, there are freeware solutions that can be used to prevent bad things from happening to you and your family. Also, it is important to note that filtering is not perfect so individuals need to be informed on how to stay protected while surfing the Internet.

Disaster Recovery

You can only recover from a disaster if you propery plan for it. Having precious memories such as family photos to critical data required for a business to run is important to backup on a regular basis. Some say that if you do not backup data on three different types of media then that data must not be very important.

There are many paid for backup methods on the market today, but there are also so many freeware backup programs that work just as well or better. Cloud computing for example can help backup your files and allow access from multiple locations at the click of a button.

Wireless Protections

Protecting your wireless router is important in the day of drive back hacking. This type of hacking will continue to grow if left unchecked. The implications of leaving a wireless router open for anyone to connect to could have some serious implications.

It only takes once for an attacker to sit outside a residence and download/upload illegal images and/or videos containing child sexual abuse or copy-written material for the federal government to make an arrest of the resident.

Both businesses and residents need to also be educated about the dangers of connecting to unsecure and even secure wireless access points because all information traveling through those routers can be collected by a unethical individual.

SmartPhone Protections

Even though SmartPhones have been around for quite a while, some believe that they are still in their infancy stages when it comes to security. How can one tell that their phone is secure or has not been compromised?

There maybe some anti-malware tools available from an appstore vendor, but are they reputable? Also, what exactly are the protections that these anti-malware tools offer?

Because we carry more private information on smartphones than ever would be found on a laptop or computer, these devices may be more of a target for attackers. Also, should mobile banking apps be trusted? What type of security do they possess if any? If they do have security are they able to protect against some type of SmartPhone Trojan from taking a screenshot of the information contained within an app or logging keystrokes to latter funnel to an attacker?

Social Engineering Countermeasures

Social Engineering is when a less than ethical person tries to trick his or her victim into divulging information or to take a certain action that the he or she would not normally do otherwise.

From facebook scams that try to steal your username and password to SPAM email trying to obtain your bank account credentials, people need to knokw how to protect themselves from these social engineers. The best defense against social engineering is educating users on how these types of scammers operate.