Authored by Rakshit Tandon, Director-Council of Information Security
“Data is the new OIL,” I have heard this phrase several times
and swear by it. We protect our cash, jewellery, assets, and other valuable belonging
in safe/lockers, ensuring their full protection. However, what about our data?
Do we give our data the protection it deserves?
Reality speaks a different story, altogether. During my
workshops, seminars, and conferences, I have connected with millions of people
on cybersecurity and data safety issues. Moreover, I keep receiving 20-30
complaints on average every day and believe me, each one of them is a new modus
operandi or a new kind of threat. Most of the cybercrimes reported in our country’s
cybercrime cells are either a result of data breach, social engineering, or social
media abuse.
Recently, for example, a complainant was duped of with Rs. 6,500
in quite a strange way. She first received a call that claimed to be from a popular
online shopping store. The call confirmed her the details of her recent
shopping order, mentioning all the product details. Thereafter, she was
informed that she had been chosen as the lucky winner of a brandnew iPhone 7
plus based on that specific order. She was also told that she would just need
to bear the shipping charges of Rs. 6,500/- and the phone would be delivered to
her. And she fell prey to cybercrime.
Now, here come a few important questions. Is it safe to
collect data from my customers into my apps or servers if I run an online store
or online service? Is it an incident of data breach? Are there any moles in our
setup? Is our data constantly being leaked? Are we protective of security?
Usually, people
wait for something to happen and then, they react. Such a negligent attitude is a big problem.
Data collected need to be secured. Technology offers many solutions to do that,
with a few being IDS Intrusion Detection Systems and data encryption.
In today’s era, data is everywhere right from the fitness watch
on your hand to your mobile device, laptop, apps, office workstation, servers, cloud, and so on. Therefore, data
security and data privacy are no more an afterthought—they are the need of the
hour. Maintaining security on your digital identity is a must.
Email security should be the most important thing for individuals
and corporates. Email address not only works as an identity for your business or
communication but also acts as the login identity of social media accounts like
LinkedIn and Facebook and ecommerce accounts like ebay, amazon, etc.
I can recall a recent case of a person where his system/or one
of his workers’ computer got infected with a malware, which helped the hacker
access his official email account. Since the hacker got access to his emails,
he at first compromised all his email settings, particularly, his email filter –
blocking access to all his clients’ emails and email forwarder – where he
inserted his newly created email account (Tweaked). For example, if the actual
business email was info@rakshittandon.com with a display name as “Rakshit
Tandon,” the hacker created info@rakshittondon.com with the same display name.
Then, the hacker sent an email to his client, demanding to
divert the said payment to the new account in a foreign bank, citing the reason
that his account had been seized owing to some bank audit. Acknowledging the email,
the poor client deposited the said payment to the fake account. In this case, the
victim lost a whopping 1.25 million dollars.
A simple breach into your email server or account can create
such incidents. Email security of servers and clients is of utmost importance.
And prevention from the rising threats of ransomware, malwares, and spyware has
to be considered, seriously.
Training, raising awareness among users on a regular basis,
and proactive approach on cyber security are the way forward. Also,
preparedness towards response on attacks/breach will be of immense help.
What’s your idea about keeping your data protected and secured - the way Dell’s endpoint security solutions give your laptop #DataSuraksha? Share with us on Dell EMC India Twitter and Facebook
About #DataSuraksha Blog Series:
In our daily work life, we compromise our suraksha (security) many times—be it sharing our passwords, connecting to a public server, clicking phishing emails, travelling to work, off-sites, and meetings, or working from remote locations etc.
Given these incidents, #DataSuraksha campaign was introduced with the intent to sensitize people about data protection and invoke them to Stop Comprimising!
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