Cybersecurity professor shares tips on how to protect yourself from hackers
Paul Haskell-Dowland has been in the cybersecurity research and education domain for two decades — and it’s his mission to teach us all how to stay safe online.
This is important work for the Edith Cowan University Professor of Cybersecurity Practice.
The cost of cybercrime in Australia is very high, although the figures are likely to be even greater than the reported data suggest.
“Estimated [a couple of years ago] that the global cost of cybercrime … will reach the $1 trillion mark, and I believe it has passed that,” he said.
“It’s very difficult to get an accurate indication of these numbers, because so much cybercrime goes unreported.”
Professor Haskell-Dowland, who is also Associate Dean for Computing and Security, said for many people their only insight into the world of cybercrime is what is portrayed in the media in films like Hacker, and even the Diehard franchise.
“If we go back a few years and think about Hollywood’s impression of cybersecurity, it’s a criminal in a dark room, sitting behind a keyboard, usually in a hoodie and tapping on a computer and hacking into the system,” he said.
“We have had a glamorous view of cybercrime or cybersecurity for many years.”
Criminals are getting more sophisticated
Professor Haskell-Dowland said this depiction was not entirely accurate and, in fact, cyber threats came from much more organized, “very well-resourced” operations.
“This is a global network of cybercriminals, involved in a very significant level of crime,” he said.
“We’ve seen very well-organized cybercriminal groups reporting hundreds of millions of dollars in profits … so they’re competing with big multinationals.”
With this high level of sophistication, individuals become more and more vulnerable to attacks.
“It’s not just targeting one person, it could be targeting 100,000 people with just a click of the mouse, or a few keystrokes,” Professor Haskell-Dowland said.
He said there are various ways individuals can be compromised by this kind of activity.
“Sometimes things like scams, but we also hear about things like ransomware, where people’s computers are taken over and their data or files are stolen or encrypted in a way that prevents them from accessing them, and then forced to pay a fine to recover that data. ,” he said.
“Over the last few years, identity theft has become something of a wake-up call and people often see things like card skimming as a bit of a problem.”
How to protect yourself?
Professor Haskell-Dowland said there are relatively simple ways that individuals can protect themselves from cybercriminals.
He said the former involved looking at the “boring subject” of their password practice, which he said was very important.
“People find passwords that meet the criteria, and then they reuse them across multiple systems, and that would be fine if all the systems they used were secure, and never compromised,” he said.
“Unfortunately, all it takes is one of the weakest systems to compromise and one password that you thought was secure, is now in the public domain, publicly available.”
Professor Haskell-Dowland, who personally owns more than 500 passwords, recommends that passwords are not only unique for each site, but also stored securely and securely.
“I use a password manager to make sure everything is kept safe,” he says.
“Even having a notepad of all those passwords and keeping them in a drawer at home is still better than having the same password on every system.”
Professor Haskell-Dowland also suggests updating all systems and backing up data.
“Always apply updates to … every device you use, including your phone … to ensure that cybercriminals don’t have an easy foothold into your system,” he said.
“Making sure that you have a copy of all important data … so that if you get an attack, maybe you get some malicious software on your computer, you don’t lose everything.”
Target beyond the individual
Professor Haskell-Dowland said it was not only individuals who were vulnerable to cybercrime. It also has the potential to be used as a very disruptive war strategy.
“We can talk about systems that control electricity, systems that control water,” he said.
“The things we rely heavily on, for our daily lives … are often controlled by computers.
“If you are an enemy and you want to target a country, then it is much easier to attack infrastructure through digital means than to launch, for example, missiles to try and target a power plant.”
But despite the huge risks posed by cybercrime, Professor Haskell-Dowland said we should not “get too carried away with the panic”.
“The issues in cybercrime are significant, and they are evolving, but so is the defensive side – there’s a lot of time, effort and money spent defending nations and defending individuals,” he said.
“The reality is most cybercriminals are still very lazy in their perspective and they will go after the easiest targets, so making yourself a little more difficult to become a victim means they will move on to easier and easier targets.”
#Cybersecurity #professor #shares #tips #protect #hackers
Comments
Post a Comment