The need for Cyber security in the new world

I for one, got sceptical about the internet, when I was signing up for a newsletter for some website. The ones that end up being unread in the spam folder of the inbox.

As I was about to type in my details, an option popped up on my device, offering to type out the my details for me. The moment I clicked ‘ok’, it entered all my details, which even I, myself got wrong at times. Alarmed was not the word for it.

Being a law student, a paper in the current semester brought me up close with the nuances of cyber security and its relevance in this new age world.

Prior to that, me, being a victim of a cyber attack, never crossed my mind. It felt as the fort of the ‘big body corporates’ and hackers as we’ve seen in the movies.

The scene starting of with a shot of the outside of a high rise building and then the scene progressing into the interiors filled with people in expensive suits hustling and bustling. Then we were shown a guy Sitting in a shady corner, mostly, in a far away place, with blood shot eyes behind the specs, with the hoody on and staring onto the screen with the concentration of a heart surgeon conducting bypass surgery, not concerned about the realities of the world.

The power of what all a person can accomplish with a gadget connected to the internet is old news for us, but the intensity of the troubles are worth pondering about.

The need for educating people of all walks of life about the dangers of the internet and how to steer clear is indeed the need of the hour.

If systems of international banks can be compromised over the web, why not a person like you and me, who are unaware of the pool we’ve our legs dipped in.

Surely, it has made our lives easier, closer and more colourful, but don’t forget that there are two sides to every coin. We go about living our lives believing that the ‘common man’ will never be vulnerable to cyber attacks.

In the quest of becoming more social, we often get carried away on a few things. A couple of decades back and even now at times, the society as a whole gets sceptical of exposing sensitive datas like addresses, contact details and other stuff to a complete stranger.

But now, to fit in, we’ve all details from our DOB to mail ids and everything and anything on the web for people to access. What if it goes into the hands of the wrong kind?

Completely forgetting that everything about them is just a few taps away on some site.

Most importantly I believe conversations in the past were restricted due to the fear of getting punched in the face. But now the power of the internet has made anybody a ‘somebody’, a ‘keyboard warrior’; people, hiding away behind a screen, doing anything, feeling assured against not getting punched, at all.

Sure, we can justify all these, that we’ve progressed and become free thinking but people are still people.

We were taught not to step into the cars of a stranger but now we book and share cabs with people who we’ve never met.

Whole of my life I was asked to live by the rules and I believe that’s the best way to live. When all my peers started downloading movies and songs, from random sites, I’ve never felt the need; because I’ve always been certain that there’s nothing like a ‘free lunch’ in this world. People play it smart, by downloading pirated stuff, believing that they pulled a fast one, unaware of the threats posed by such sites.

Cyber security experts have time and again conferred that such articles are often kept out as baits for snatching the weak ones. You may never know when your luck runs out.

Everything comes with a cost.

The very websites that may host such pirated content may contain malware that might end up compromising your system.

Taking everything from basic details to bank info along with it. Enough to make you lose everything you own to your name in a matter of seconds. Losing everything you’ve had to strive for your entire life, gone, in just a matter of minutes, to download a movie or two, is something we can surely live without, right?

Most websites know us like the back of their hands with the algorithms they use. Next time when you see an ad for something you were searching for a little while back, coincidence, I think not.

Digital footprint is something that’s not talked about. It’s the track of what all we’ve done across the Internet. The track would itself suffice to tell a tale or two about us.

They say energy can’t be destroyed, same applies to data, once created it can never be destroyed. Every single time we send a doc or text to the Recycle bin and get it erased from there, we feel we’ve got it out of the system. But apparently what happens is that the data gets taken out from the view but will continue to be stored on the hard disk. The tech is so advanced that, nowadays anyone can buy a software and retrieve all kinds of data from your device.

The vastness of the internet has made us ever so negligent of what all we do. .

Every time we hear somebody being a victim of a cyber attack, we judge them, that very moment, that ‘they should’ve been more careful.’ But how safe do you think you’re? It might be somebody today, and you tomorrow. Think twice before your next type/leap.

It’s better to be safe than sorry.

As the internet gets more and more entangled with our day to day lives, going the extra mile to ensure that no data is unnecessarily shared can make all the difference in all the world.

The internet is nothing more than a large network connecting and abridging the gaps between networks. It grants us access to everything and anything.

But always remember a bridge has two ends, what may connect us to everything, connects us to them too.