Sunday, May 13, 2012
5/13/2012 07:21:00 PM | 
Posted by
Unknown |
A lot of casual talks with friends or acquaintances these times include some computer topics. As the world gets more and more drawn to information and communication technologies, I guess that is a natural development – an evolution of you want. Most of the people I talk to know or have heard, that I might be able to give them some support for whatever their computer problems are – or if they are thinking about buying a new laptop, computer or smart phone. When these discussions enter the sphere of information security, they become interesting.
Whenever pinpointing a weakness or vulnerability in their information security – we are talking here about not activated Windows updates, non-use of any anti-malware solution etc. – I ask them why they simply do not care about it. The answer is in most of the cases ‘ah well, what do they want with my data anyway?’, ‘I have nothing to hide’, ‘why should the FBI spy on me?’ or ‘if the hacker wants to download the pictures of my last holiday, he might as well do it’ and so on.
So why care about your own information security? Here are some thoughts, you might want to consider in answering that question.
1. Some people just don’t care if your information are important or not or if they can do something with it. Just for the hack of it, they might make all your data go to the void. When was the last time you backuped your files?
2. Some people make money of denying you the access to your files (#ransomware) and threaten to delete it if you don’t pay money. When was the last time you backuped your files?
3. Some people like to use your computer to commit further crimes (#proxy). They even might make your computer part of their army (#botnet) and before you know, your computer is attacking the NATO website. Ever wanted the Feds knocking at your door?
4. What data do you have on your computer? I am not talking about the usual suspects like online banking details. Having access to your computer gives a criminal – or just someone who hates you – the full information overdose. Thanks to Facebook he knows what you are doing when you are doing it, all the pictures on your computer, even those that are not uploaded on Facebook, which pages you usually browse to, your address, information about your family etc. Criminals, stalker and other crazy people can do an awful lot of harm to you having those information. Think about it, these information are far more detailed than all the information your friends have about you?
5. Did you know that allowing those security loopholes can enable an attacker to secretly switch on your web-cam or your microphone and record everything that is going on in the room your computer is in? Take some time and think about what might have been recorded in the last days or weeks and then ask yourself again if information security is not important.
6. The Trojan horse that was used by the German government was evidently so flawed that once you reverse-engineered it, everyone could make use of all Trojans planted because they use a very weak encryption or no encryption at all. So a criminal might take over the Trojan which was planted by the government. Still feel like you have nothing to hide from the government?
7. Not opposing laws which give huge powers to the Feds and other agencies (#SOPA, #PIPA, #COPA, #CISPA) does not mean that you have to be interesting for the government. All those information which are collected can then be used against you. Not only by the agencies but all those little people working there. If someone works there and has a grudge against you, he can legally find all the information about you there.
This list goes on and on. The important question to ask yourself now is: do you really think the state of security of your computer systems is not important?
THANKS TO projectxblog...
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
0 comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.