In a world that is increasingly moving from real to virtual, personal information has become the new currency. The more we rely on the online route for conducting our activities, the larger is the amount of data we are putting out in unclaimed territory.
And in light of the recent data breach at Yahoo — the biggest ever till date where millions of user accounts were stolen from the database — one can see how vulnerable the netizens are when it comes to protecting themselves from cyber criminals.
"When any data shared by a user of a website or organisation goes into unauthorised hands, it is called a data breach," explains Sachin Dev, founder of startup 'www.goparty.com'. "And whether it is a startup or the biggest MNC in the world, such a situation is nothing less than a nightmare for a company. Data hacking is becoming an increasingly real threat now because an individual's personal information can fetch anything from $15-$40, based on the potential of that person," he explains.
Sadly, far too many organisations still take refuge in denial and believe that something like this could not happen to them. The same can be said of individuals who refuse to change their online security settings, reset passwords or use two-factor authentication.
There are a number of steps that we can follow to keep ourselves safe, at least to some extent, according to Sreejith N, senior software quality engineer in an MNC.
"One shouldn't subscribe or give their personal email to online shopping sites. It will be safer to create a separate email id for all such uses and a separate one for personal or official purposes. Avoid authorising your email id with any gaming sites — these could be spam and may cause data loss in future," he says. "Then there are the usual precautions about keeping your passwords a bit complex instead of using some generic typical ones and avoiding location services as far as possible," he adds. Most of these measures are something that we have been hearing ever since the world wide web took over but sadly, we have still not been able to understand their importance. And the more evident their relevance becomes, the more we are reluctant to act. "We can't substitute technology for common sense," explains Freddy D'silva, a professional. "Manual checking and personal substantiation is still the best way to protect ourselves in the cyberworld. Don't leave everything to automated instructions," he says. However, there are certain ways in which we can utilise technology to beat technology and Freddy is quick to point these out as well.
"An anti-virus software is our first line of defence against such attacks and it is imperative to invest in a good one. Firewall is another one tool by which we can guarantee at least some degree of safety. Also use tools for encrypting the passwords or other information you save online and hide folders with personal details on common office computers," he adds.
Coming to the point of office computers, these are storehouses of both official and personal knowledge and thus need to be doubly protected. "Which is why many companies enable access to only certain sites and don't let you download videos or visit random sites," says Freddy.
Similarly, when your mobiles keep asking you to update apps, they are not hatching a conspiracy to eat up all your storage space. They are updating their encryption codes, explains Sachin. "And there is not much one can do to protect against physical theft of devices except backing up data and making sure it is password protected," he adds.
Seems like a bit paranoid? It's alright; a better option than having your name and phone number floating around in cyberspace. Because as Jon Stewart said, "The internet is just a world passing around notes in a classroom."
![]( "Alarming Data hacking has become a common threat to individuals and organisations.")
In a world that is increasingly moving from real to virtual, personal information has become the new currency. The more we rely on the online route for conducting our activities, the larger is the amount of data we are putting out in unclaimed territory.
And in light of the recent data breach at Yahoo — the biggest ever till date where millions of user accounts were stolen from the database — one can see how vulnerable the netizens are when it comes to protecting themselves from cyber criminals.
"When any data shared by a user of a website or organisation goes into unauthorised hands, it is called a data breach,” explains Sachin Dev, founder of startup 'www.goparty.com’. "And whether it is a startup or the biggest MNC in the world, such a situation is nothing less than a nightmare for a company. Data hacking is becoming an increasingly real threat now because an individual’s personal information can fetch anything from $15-$40, based on the potential of that person,” he explains.
Sadly, far too many organisations still take refuge in denial and believe that something like this could not happen to them. The same can be said of individuals who refuse to change their online security settings, reset passwords or use two-factor authentication.
There are a number of steps that we can follow to keep ourselves safe, at least to some extent, according to Sreejith N, senior software quality engineer in an MNC.
"One shouldn’t subscribe or give their personal email to online shopping sites. It will be safer to create a separate email id for all such uses and a separate one for personal or official purposes. Avoid authorising your email id with any gaming sites — these could be spam and may cause data loss in future,” he says. "Then there are the usual precautions about keeping your passwords a bit complex instead of using some generic typical ones and avoiding location services as far as possible,” he adds. Most of these measures are something that we have been hearing ever since the world wide web took over but sadly, we have still not been able to understand their importance. And the more evident their relevance becomes, the more we are reluctant to act. "We can’t substitute technology for common sense,” explains Freddy D’silva, a professional. "Manual checking and personal substantiation is still the best way to protect ourselves in the cyberworld. Don’t leave everything to automated instructions,” he says. However, there are certain ways in which we can utilise technology to beat technology and Freddy is quick to point these out as well.
"An anti-virus software is our first line of defence against such attacks and it is imperative to invest in a good one. Firewall is another one tool by which we can guarantee at least some degree of safety. Also use tools for encrypting the passwords or other information you save online and hide folders with personal details on common office computers,” he adds.
Coming to the point of office computers, these are storehouses of both official and personal knowledge and thus need to be doubly protected. "Which is why many companies enable access to only certain sites and don’t let you download videos or visit random sites,” says Freddy.
Similarly, when your mobiles keep asking you to update apps, they are not hatching a conspiracy to eat up all your storage space. They are updating their encryption codes, explains Sachin. "And there is not much one can do to protect against physical theft of devices except backing up data and making sure it is password protected,” he adds.
Seems like a bit paranoid? It’s alright; a better option than having your name and phone number floating around in cyberspace. Because as Jon Stewart said, "The internet is just a world passing around notes in a classroom.”
And in light of the recent data breach at Yahoo — the biggest ever till date where millions of user accounts were stolen from the database — one can see how vulnerable the netizens are when it comes to protecting themselves from cyber criminals.
"When any data shared by a user of a website or organisation goes into unauthorised hands, it is called a data breach," explains Sachin Dev, founder of startup 'www.goparty.com'. "And whether it is a startup or the biggest MNC in the world, such a situation is nothing less than a nightmare for a company. Data hacking is becoming an increasingly real threat now because an individual's personal information can fetch anything from $15-$40, based on the potential of that person," he explains.
Sadly, far too many organisations still take refuge in denial and believe that something like this could not happen to them. The same can be said of individuals who refuse to change their online security settings, reset passwords or use two-factor authentication.
There are a number of steps that we can follow to keep ourselves safe, at least to some extent, according to Sreejith N, senior software quality engineer in an MNC.
"One shouldn't subscribe or give their personal email to online shopping sites. It will be safer to create a separate email id for all such uses and a separate one for personal or official purposes. Avoid authorising your email id with any gaming sites — these could be spam and may cause data loss in future," he says. "Then there are the usual precautions about keeping your passwords a bit complex instead of using some generic typical ones and avoiding location services as far as possible," he adds. Most of these measures are something that we have been hearing ever since the world wide web took over but sadly, we have still not been able to understand their importance. And the more evident their relevance becomes, the more we are reluctant to act. "We can't substitute technology for common sense," explains Freddy D'silva, a professional. "Manual checking and personal substantiation is still the best way to protect ourselves in the cyberworld. Don't leave everything to automated instructions," he says. However, there are certain ways in which we can utilise technology to beat technology and Freddy is quick to point these out as well.
"An anti-virus software is our first line of defence against such attacks and it is imperative to invest in a good one. Firewall is another one tool by which we can guarantee at least some degree of safety. Also use tools for encrypting the passwords or other information you save online and hide folders with personal details on common office computers," he adds.
Coming to the point of office computers, these are storehouses of both official and personal knowledge and thus need to be doubly protected. "Which is why many companies enable access to only certain sites and don't let you download videos or visit random sites," says Freddy.
Similarly, when your mobiles keep asking you to update apps, they are not hatching a conspiracy to eat up all your storage space. They are updating their encryption codes, explains Sachin. "And there is not much one can do to protect against physical theft of devices except backing up data and making sure it is password protected," he adds.
Seems like a bit paranoid? It's alright; a better option than having your name and phone number floating around in cyberspace. Because as Jon Stewart said, "The internet is just a world passing around notes in a classroom."
In a world that is increasingly moving from real to virtual, personal information has become the new currency. The more we rely on the online route for conducting our activities, the larger is the amount of data we are putting out in unclaimed territory.And in light of the recent data breach at Yahoo — the biggest ever till date where millions of user accounts were stolen from the database — one can see how vulnerable the netizens are when it comes to protecting themselves from cyber criminals.
"When any data shared by a user of a website or organisation goes into unauthorised hands, it is called a data breach,” explains Sachin Dev, founder of startup 'www.goparty.com’. "And whether it is a startup or the biggest MNC in the world, such a situation is nothing less than a nightmare for a company. Data hacking is becoming an increasingly real threat now because an individual’s personal information can fetch anything from $15-$40, based on the potential of that person,” he explains.
Sadly, far too many organisations still take refuge in denial and believe that something like this could not happen to them. The same can be said of individuals who refuse to change their online security settings, reset passwords or use two-factor authentication.
There are a number of steps that we can follow to keep ourselves safe, at least to some extent, according to Sreejith N, senior software quality engineer in an MNC.
"One shouldn’t subscribe or give their personal email to online shopping sites. It will be safer to create a separate email id for all such uses and a separate one for personal or official purposes. Avoid authorising your email id with any gaming sites — these could be spam and may cause data loss in future,” he says. "Then there are the usual precautions about keeping your passwords a bit complex instead of using some generic typical ones and avoiding location services as far as possible,” he adds. Most of these measures are something that we have been hearing ever since the world wide web took over but sadly, we have still not been able to understand their importance. And the more evident their relevance becomes, the more we are reluctant to act. "We can’t substitute technology for common sense,” explains Freddy D’silva, a professional. "Manual checking and personal substantiation is still the best way to protect ourselves in the cyberworld. Don’t leave everything to automated instructions,” he says. However, there are certain ways in which we can utilise technology to beat technology and Freddy is quick to point these out as well.
"An anti-virus software is our first line of defence against such attacks and it is imperative to invest in a good one. Firewall is another one tool by which we can guarantee at least some degree of safety. Also use tools for encrypting the passwords or other information you save online and hide folders with personal details on common office computers,” he adds.
Coming to the point of office computers, these are storehouses of both official and personal knowledge and thus need to be doubly protected. "Which is why many companies enable access to only certain sites and don’t let you download videos or visit random sites,” says Freddy.
Similarly, when your mobiles keep asking you to update apps, they are not hatching a conspiracy to eat up all your storage space. They are updating their encryption codes, explains Sachin. "And there is not much one can do to protect against physical theft of devices except backing up data and making sure it is password protected,” he adds.
Seems like a bit paranoid? It’s alright; a better option than having your name and phone number floating around in cyberspace. Because as Jon Stewart said, "The internet is just a world passing around notes in a classroom.”