Page 48 - Cyber Warnings - November 2015

with a few friends can land up on social media sites by uploading pictures, videos and stating our
exact location via GPS so anyone can gather the who, what, where and why at a click of a button.
Privacy, what privacy? Surely there should be measures to protect us from the baddies in the online
world if so much of what we do moves onto an online platform that makes our data publically
available.

“What an unsecure network you have!” “All the better to hack into my dear!”: In favour of
security

A recent Checkpoint report found that there are 10 million new cyber-attacks every day. It is an
understatement to say that the figure reported is a lot to guard against and opportunities for an
attack are abundant. The question is – why are the perceptions of these attacks different to those
that occur in the physical world?

For example, if there is a cyber-attack on the power grid which affects hospitals and schools would
we respond in the same way as if those establishments had been attacked by conventional
weapons? The answer is probably ‘no.’

We have accepted security measures in the ‘real’ world such as CCTV cameras which track our
every movement through footage captured on the bus, in shops and at work from the minute we set
foot outside the house to the minute we return home. Reports from sources such as The
Independent have estimated that on average, in Britain, you are caught on camera 300 times a day.
This data is retained and it is ironic that what is keeping this data safe may be vulnerable to a
breach itself.

Yet we are reluctant to accept security online despite the fact that it now houses most of our
personal data especially in the advent of the ‘paperless office.’ Moreover, children are vulnerable as
their lives now are becoming increasingly digital with their education and medical records stored
online adding to the large amount of personal data which must be protected.

Again I return to the notion that the argument is not as black and white as I have presented here.
Rather, security and privacy work in tandem with each other and the utmost premise boils down to
the fact that security entails better privacy. Without security I must remind you of the question;
privacy, what privacy?

Once upon a time we were clueless. But as talk of cybercrime has begun to infiltrate our lives our
eyes have opened to the vulnerabilities that could lie ahead. We are no longer ignorant. Now we
have cyber-security to give us ‘the happy ever after’ we hope for. Now it is just a case of waiting for
people to realise there are ‘big, bad wolves’ online and they aren’t going to rest until they get what
they came for.

To some, security may feel like a privacy invasion but if your data gets into the hands of an
unethical hacker then you will know what a real invasion of privacy feels like. Now we are no longer
clueless we can act upon our vulnerabilities and avoid being the innocent Red Riding hood skipping
across cyberspace susceptible to falling prey to the big bad wolves…

48 Cyber Warnings E-Magazine – November 2015 Edition
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