PDF Version: Data-Encryption-Transformations-Entrepreneurs-Should-Know-About
Category: Security Page 26 of 75
The outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic has made it important to minimize human interaction in business operations. As most people are staying at home and practicing minimum mobility, it is time to scale up your software-based systems to meet the business needs and consumer demands. However, when businesses consider replacing their operations with digital technologies, they need to ensure thoughtful technology decisions, practices, and investments.
One of the core pillars that guide the decision making for a digital business is data. In order to formulate a successful digital business strategy, it is imperative to layout some data principles. The three basic data principles for a successful digital business are:
- Data Is An Asset: The first data principle for a successful digital business is to understand how digital business is different from conventional business. Although the underlying concept of a digital business is same as that of a physical business, the difference lies in the role of data as an asset. The success of a digital business is based on collecting data and applying it to accelerate workflows, increase flexibility, target value propositions, and achieve business goals. The data plays the role of most important assets for a digital business as it provides the necessary information required for formulating successful future strategies.
- Increase The Value Of Data Assets: The main difference between data and other assets is that data can be applied to multiple domains continuously. However, it is important to choose a suitable way to use data in a constructive manner for the effective use of resources. The second data principle for a successful digital business is to take steps to increase the value of data assets. While deciding a suitable way of using data, the main focus should be on increasing business’s efficiency while improving data sharing.
- Data Security: With an increasing number of data breaches, it is necessary to implement the third data principle of data security. Business data may include personal information of users, business strategies, trade secrets, etc. A data breach can lead to loss of credibility among users. It can also cause financial loss to the organization by damaging the brand image or resulting in loss of business. Thus, in order to ensure the success of a digital business, it is important to keep the business data secure.
For more information on data principles and strategies to implement digitization of businesses, contact Centex Technologies at (254) 213 – 4740.
While the world is busy fighting against COVID-19, there is a section of cyber criminals who are exploiting the situation for lucrative benefits. They are taking advantage of the efforts made by organizations to sustain their operations during this pandemic. The cyber security attacks include phishing attacks, data breach, ransom, etc.
In order to defend your organization against cyber security threats during COVID-19, it is first important to understand the reasons that have resulted in an increase in cyber-attacks. Following are the 5 top reasons:
- The foremost reason is that the employees are working from their home networks and their personal devices. These networks and devices are usually not updated with latest antivirus or operating system versions. The lack of a properly patched and protected system results in vulnerabilities leading to easy access for hackers.
- The second reason that has led to an increase in the number of the cyber-attacks is the flow of organizational data. When employees work from their homes, sensitive organizational data travels outside the secure network of the organization. Additionally, while working with this data, employees tend to save it on their personal devices. This allows for easy data theft.
- The third reason is that employees need to access the organization’s network to complete their work. This remote access may be insecure. Some organizations have already established a VPN for remote access. But again all the employees are not trained to install or use a VPN. Such untrained personnel pose a cyber-security threat when they access the organization’s network. On the contrary, there are some organizations that do not have a VPN setup for remote access. This may cause a cyber-threat of greater magnitude.
- Fourth reason that has caused a rise in the number of cyber-attacks is an organization’s requirement to keep the employees involved and informed. The regular team meetings that were conducted to discuss the team operations have been replaced by online meetings. Organizations are making use of conference video calls or unique apps like ‘Zoom’ to conduct these meetings. The shift has been hasty and not all the involved employees are aware of how to use these apps securely. Insecure logins, poorly managed user credentials and login via an insecure network are some factors that have led to cyber-attacks such as video call hacking.
- Fifth reason accounts for unauthorized access to an organization’s funds. The underlying reason is the need of the time to do things differently. A simple example of such an attack is that an employee receives an email from a fake account created on behalf of senior personnel in the organization. The email may instruct the employee to transfer funds to an account in lieu of some organizational purchase. Since employees may not be able to validate such emails, they may end up transferring funds to the hacker’s accounts.
In order to prevent such attacks, the organizations need to educate the employees to update their systems, download antivirus updates, secure their login details, use secure VPN to access the organization’s network and be aware of fake emails.
For more information on cyber security threats during COVID-19, contact Centex Technologies at (254) 213 – 4740.
Web users intend to use VPN services with an assumption that VPN keeps their web browsing and personal data safe. However, recent research has thrown light on some vulnerabilities found in common and popular VPN apps.
These vulnerabilities include:
- Missing encryption of sensitive data.
- Hard-coded cryptographic keys within the app; thus, even if the data is encrypted, hackers can decrypt it using these keys.
- Some VPN apps have user privacy breaking bugs such as DNS leaks which expose user DNS queries to their ISPs.
These vulnerabilities of VPN apps allow hackers to intercept user communications including web browsing history, username, passwords, photos, videos, and messages. The privacy breaches include location tracking, access to device status information, use of the camera, microphone access and ability to send SMS secretly. Using these vulnerabilities, hackers can manipulate the users to connect to their malicious VPN servers.
In addition to these vulnerabilities, there are some other concerns associated with free VPN apps:
- Some free VPN apps sell your bandwidth to paying customers allowing them to use your device’s processing power.
- Malicious VPN apps incorporate ads that may include malware. These apps may also share the online activity of users to third party marketing professionals.
Some signs that your phone has been affected by malware are:
- Phone becomes slow.
- Higher loading time of app.
- Battery drains faster than usual.
- Large number of pop-up ads.
- Unexplainable data usage.
As the number of data breaches is exceeding, it has become important to take necessary measures for safeguarding yourself against malicious VPN apps. Following are some measures that you should take:
- Check if you have sufficient information about the app developer. Download the VPN apps provided by trusted app developers only.
- Check the app reviews. You can also search for the app on the search engine to check if there is any controversial news about it.
- Audit the apps on your phone to check if they were downloaded by you or not.
Delete apps that you don’t use frequently. - Run a malware scan after downloading any app to ensure it is safe.
For more information on ways to protect your data from malicious VPN apps, contact Centex Technologies at (254) 213 – 4740.