How to Safeguard Our Personal and Financial Data?
Privacy and confidentiality had always been an issue with the advancements in technology. The threat of privacy invasion by hackers leads to an increasing need in protecting important personal and financial data with effective measures. More often than not, the problems include stealing data for illegal usage either from database or when it is being transferred over the network. Listed below are the safeguards one can employ to reduce the risk of successive information abuse.
Password protection
· The most common protection consisting of alphabets and numbers
· Although this protection is still susceptible to automated attacks, it is still effective because it can slow down the attacker, which increase the probability that the attack will be detected and/or attacker abandon the attack and turn to easier targets
· To increase the strength of this protection, hard password should be used whereby it contains 6 or more character with at least 1 special character or digit and mixed case sensitivity, and not forming a name, date, acronym, or pronounceable word.
Firewall
·A protected gateway that stands between the resources requiring protection and the “outside; a filter between private network and the internet
·To be effective, a firewall must guard all access to the internal network, including modem connections as well as remote network access.
· Always keep the firewall on.
Encryption
· The process a message is scramble in a difficult, expensive or time consuming way for an unauthorized person to decipher it.
· Can use either public or private key to encrypt and decrypt the message
· Provide security to both stored and transmitting data.
Packet filters
· Rules that can accept/reject incoming packets based source and destination address and other identifying information
· If suspicious attachment were found to be accompanying an email, only the email will be accepted on the condition that the attachment is to be rejected.
Antivirus/Antispyware software
· The number of known viruses is increasing exponentially, including viruses, worms, Trojan horses, trapdoors, and logic bombs.
· Hidden spyware are also being embedded into the data.
· Install antivirus and antispyware to detect these malicious codes and to remove it such as Norton AntiVirus, Doctor Spyware, Avira, AVG and etc.
· Free antivirus software can be easily obtained from the internet.
· Also, always keep the software updated to eliminate new malware of which the older version of the software is incapable of detecting it.
Virtual Private Network
· Public internet is used to carry information but network remain private by using encryption to scramble for communication, authentication by ensuring information transmitted not altered, and access control to verify the identity of anyone using the network.
· Security is also given when using this safeguard
Intrusion Detection System (IDS)
· A special software which monitors the activity across a network or host computer,watching out for suspicious activity and taking automated action based on what it encounters
· Include shutting down the server if found necessary
Be educated
· Take time to keep update with the latest strategy in how hackers hack into database.
· Be aware of the popular phishing methods to prevent leaking sensitive information to third party accidentally.
All in all, practice using private communication lines when possible to limit public eavesdropping and potential intrusions, facilitate the usage of passwords, access restrictions, and user authentication to guard against unauthorized access and also secure systems with virus scanners, firewalls, and intrusion detection systems if possible. Never forget to read on the current issues of how data were being stolen.
Source: CONCERNS ABOUT INTRUSIONS INTO REMOTELY ACCESSIBLE SUBSTATION CONTROLLERS AND SCADA SYSTEMS by Paul Oman and Edmund O. Schweitzer Deborah Frincke , retrieved from http://www.csds.uidaho.edu/deb/SCADA.pdf
