Week 7

Week 7: Internet Security

With the advancement of technology and the internet, it doesn’t come without dangers. Internet users should be aware of the dangers that come with casual browsing and downloading. What I mean by dangers are of course are viruses, worms and phishing. Such things can cause a lot of damage to one’s computer and cyber criminals set them off into the Internet. I for one am lucky to have never experienced any sort of virus on my computer and honestly, I am terrified of ever encountering one. This is partly due to an excellent anti-virus program I have installed on my computer and Smartphone, as well as my own actions of staying away from unfamiliar sites and not clicking on anything I am unsure of.

There are all sorts of cyber crimes that exist on the Internet. They range from spam to Advanced Fee Fraud. The country that has the most number of reported cyber crimes are the United States. Not only can cyber crimes be detrimental and even devastating to individuals, but they are extremely costly! In one year alone, the amount of money that cyber crimes cost total up to 114 Billion Dollars. When I read that figure I was astounded that it could be such a shocking amount. I don’t think that one type of cyber crime is worse than the rest because they are all capable of causing immense damage.

When I read that the United States have the most cyber crimes, I began to wonder about Singapore. To be honest, I have never read anything about cyber crimes or malicious viruses going around in Singapore so I assumed Singapore must be pretty safe. But I was wrong. I read an article by ‘Techgoondu” and it stated that cyber crimes cost Singapore an estimated 1.25 billion dollars a year. This shows that no one and no country is safe from cyber crime and that it’s inevitable to some extent. I also read that the new Interpol opening in Singapore is helping to fight against cybercrime. However, even though I searched for cyber crime in Singapore, there were not any stories that made headlines about cybercrime.

So, the ultimate question is what can we actually do about it? Yes, I could tell you to install a good anti-virus and you’d be good to go but that wouldn’t be whole truth. There’s much more to Internet Security than we may think. It’s a careful amalgamation of various steps. Here are some tips I think are very important to prevent cybercrimes happening to you:

1.     Have a good anti-virus (i.e. Norton) on your computer and keep it up to date

2.     Don’t visit sites that are unfamiliar to you or look suspicious

3.     Don’t click on suspicious advertisements or pop-up advertisements

4.     If you receive an email with an attachment from an unknown sender, delete it immediately (it’s always better to be safe than sorry, right?)

5.     Be very cautious with anything that is pirated, because you never know what it contains.

6.     Be on the look-out for any symptoms of a virus on your computer (i.e. it becomes very slow)

7.     Keep all personal information safe (i.e. credit card numbers, pin codes etc)

8.     Check bank statements regularly (in case anything suspicious is going on in your account)

 

Anti-Virus Software

Overall, I think even though cyber crime is on the rise, we can still try our best to keep ourselves safe. I think at least if we become victims for whatever reason, we know that we did everything was could to prevent it and its just a matter of bad luck. I also think that everyone should get acquainted with what a virus looks like and the effects it can have on a computer and data. Knowing what the top 10 threats are is also a good way to prevent getting them. For example, ILoveYou and My Doom. I think the best advice I have for protecting personal information and prevention of fraud and hacking is strong passwords that are not easy to guess. It’s a no-brainer tip but it good to be reminded!  

References:

http://www.techgoondu.com/2014/06/11/report-cyber-crime-costs-singapore-an-estimated-s1-25bn-annually/