The importance of cybersecurity and its potential threats in digital

18. April 2023

A little bit in all work spaces, whether in a remote, hybrid or face-to-face model, cybersecurity is a delicate topic that may be at the center of the day-to-day concerns of those who work with technology or who, at any given moment, have recourse to IT to carry out their daily tasks.

It is natural, when we work in an environment with technology at our disposal, to be aware of the importance of security, both of the equipment and the network, but also with transferable assets such as text, image, video or other content, and the basic rule is to manage our accesses with passwords, whose security indicators give us the basic parameters of digital protection.

What is cybersecurity?

As the name itself indicates, etymologically original from ancient Greece and the word kibernetikê, it is understood as the science of governing, piloting, commanding or directing something. Thus, we understand cybersecurity to be an area related to the study of communication systems, the flow of information, and how they are managed.

Currently, millions of people and companies, public or private, in numerous sectors of activity such as banking, health, education, security, etc. may be the target of computer attacks or, technically speaking, cyber attacks.

What is cyberattack?

Cybercrime is understood as any attack in its singularity or in a repeated form directed at third parties, whose use of technology in their personal or professional routine, happens on a regular basis, with the intention of harming something or someone and in order to obtain confidential information. Currently, with increasingly digitized work routines, the cyberattack is an action that has gained some recurrence, because from the moment that information such as accesses, banking data and other personal content are exposed on the web, they can be used in a derogatory way and victimize several people in the most diverse senses.

What is a cybercrime?

Resorting to the definitions presented earlier, cybercrime refers to the succession of attacks set up in numerous ways, targeting various entities, by various means. The criminal acts that occur in the digital environment can be grouped into this type of violation of property and privacy, such as:

• - Identity fraud
• - Access to financial information
• - Corporate data access and sale
• - Ransomware
• - Digital espionage
• - Copyright and patent infringement
• - Illegal product sales
• - Among others

How can we protect our information on digital and prevent attacks

There are at our disposal some preventive measures that we can easily adopt and whose mission is to prevent gaps in the computer system on the web, computer network between computers and from the behavioral point of view regarding the visit of web pages.

How to protect passwords and access data

There are several authentication methods that can be used to strengthen security and that create a strong barrier to improper and unauthorized access. Using authentication protocols, such as OAuth, token management tools and password management tools with extremely strong password encryption models, for example, we can give additional security in browsing and that can make the implementation of websites and systems, with login mechanisms and integration with other systems, more secure as well.

How to protect email information

In workspaces, it is common for a considerable amount of email to be sent on a daily basis, and there may of course be sensitive and confidential information being conveyed through this channel.

The risks inherent in sending an email, replying to or opening a specific email should be considered, because they do exist. Therefore, it is recommended to verify its origin, i.e. who sent the email, in order to ascertain its reliability. With regard to attached files, care should be increased because if the source is not reliable, they can also put digital security at risk. Similarly, hyperlinks that refer to other pages or forms may be indications for a red alert as to the veracity of the message. In some cases, these practices are intended to lead to the facilitation of personal data that could even reach cyber-pirates or hackers.

On the other hand, it is important to check emails in terms of writing, in order to detect any grammatical errors, translation errors, or other signs that lead to a more immediate and defensive intervention. Signatures can also be a key point to identify whether or not an email is trustworthy, especially those sent by alleged companies.

Phishing, smishing and vishing

Three concepts that share the same suffix, but with major differences between them. First of all, phishing refers to the process of obtaining and stealing personal information, passwords, bank account data, personal identification data, among others, collected through email exchanges. On the other hand, smishing consists of carrying out attacks via telephone or SMS to obtain the same type of personal information. Finally, vishing uses techniques to offend the moral integrity of the victims, through social engineering techniques that aim to get them to hand over their own data voluntarily.

Attempts to defraud or swindle in the names of banks and insurance companies are becoming more and more common. These persuasion attempts can happen in the digital environment, but also in other traditional channels such as the telephone, through calls with fake or private numbers and even by WhatsApp. Therefore, it is essential to use tools that are able to detect the origin of the contact and if it is reliable.

It is important to retain and apply the best prevention practices to ensure solid digital security, mitigating possible scenarios of undue information leakage. Therefore, a solution that provides maximum IT protection should also be considered, such as an antivirus - Kaspersky, Norton or McAfee, some valid examples in this area, which should be increasingly carefully managed.