Much of the data that used to be stored on paper, is now stored exclusively on hard drives so that it can be accessed faster, more easily and from remote areas. Hackers are constantly on the alert looking for chinks in the defenses you put up as protection; if your company chooses to forego computer network security, you can severely damage your reputation as a company.
In today’s cashless economy with the increase of mobile phones and tablets it is important to know – How social media accounts are hacked and how to secure them, Basics of android security and how to secure them, managing business risks in today’s cyberspace and much more. One should also be aware of preventive measure that can resist huge nancial and personal data losses and cost effective cyber security products.
A Real Threat to India
As per the Global Risks 2015 Report from the World Economic Forum (WEF), “90% of companies worldwide recognize they are insufciently prepared to protect themselves against cyber-attacks.” In India more than 4000 cases of major hacking of open source networks came up in 2015 and this makes India one of the most hacked countries in the world. Companies such as Black Duck Software are having talks with the Indian government to address the latter’s cyber security concerns. Currently the Indian cyber security market is worth Rs 1500 crore. More than 50 companies from US and Israel are interacting with IT rms in India for tie ups aimed at boosting cyber security. According to KPMG Cyber Crime Survey Report 2014 cyber crime has seen a great increase of frequency in India. It is not only seen to cause disruption of IT but also nancial losses. Financial services sector is most prone to cyber crime. Increasing use of mobile/smart phones/tablets for online banking/nancial transactions has increased the vulnerability to cyber-crimes. The attacks are mostly targeted against general staff, IT staff, managers and directors of various organizations.
Cyber Attacks Today
The rate of illegal activities enabling extraction of sensitive information from the Internet has grown by leaps and bounds and every working professional today is extremely vulnerable to such attacks. They can also be victims of cyber crimes like cyber stalking, hacking, phishing and cybersquatting. The major types of cyber crimes reported in India which has gravely affected many working services, defacement of websites, spam, pornography, computer virus and worms, cybersquatting, hacking, cyber stalking and phishing. Anyone can also face cyber-attacks like harassment via emails, defamation, corporate espionage, e-banking frauds and service disruptions that impact business revenues.
Cyber-attacks are also happening in the form of data security breaches and sabotage of information. The former usually includes inltration into ofcial/personal data, information on bids, prices and mergers. Sabotage on the other hand takes the form of denial service attacks, resulting in a plethora of messages and other efforts to disable systems and infrastructure. Cyber-attacks can be carried out by organized cyber crime syndicates, unhappy employees, hackers, enemy government or activists and in the current Indian context its importance is paramount. Safeguarding the cyberspace is also a matter of national security as various terror units also use it to inuence and attract the youth.
iLEAD Initiates Massive Awareness Campaign on Cyber Security
In order to sensitize everyone on the need for Cyber Security iLEAD in association with Cyber defencely rm of Information Technology Dept and Folks Deal (an e-commerce company) organized a seminar on Cyber Security. In a digital and cashless India protection of wealth, data and personal information is growing in importance and the seminar enlightened the audience with a complete know how on protection from all forms of cyber attacks. The chief guest and speaker for the event was Prof Dipankar Dasgupta, a professor at the University of Memphis and the founding Director of the Centre for Information Assurance. He has more than 200 publications to his name and is also a recipient of Willard R. Sparks Eminent Faculty Award. He is also one of the founding fathers in the eld of Articial Immune Systems. iLEAD Chairman, Mr.Pradip Chopra addressed the audience by mentioning how important the security measures are becoming in the digital economy.
The Current State of the Risk and the Challenges
The seminar started with a video on India’s weak state of cyber security. India is the most hacked country in the world and it is increasingly becoming a haven for cyber criminals due to little or no precaution or action taken. Prof Dasgupta mentioned how India has one of the highest number of cyber attacks in the world and the least amount of cyber defense systems. He continued by explaining how privacy has become a relic of the past and how wealth, information, intellectual property are all vulnerable. Indians form the highest amount of IT workforce in the world, yet India has one of the weakest cyber security. Due to the social media boom, cases of information theft, hacking, stalking and many heinous crimes are on the rise. He mentioned cases of robbery via hacking and how the internet enabled world has already become under world’s marketplace, a hacker’s playground and a nation state battleground. Some of the challenges mentioned by him were Understanding Information and Misinformation, how open source news will lose credibility (news will become membership based) and how the world is already being partitioned in the digital space. Immediate precautionary measures like use of multiple accounts instead of one social media account or one mail account interlinked to many electronic platforms (which can be disastrous), checking authenticity of URLS of every website being visited, non-disclosure of any sensitive information on social media platforms were also discussed with famous examples. After talking about cyber security programs and course structures at the University of Memphis he also discussed about the expected market growth in cyber security.
Anurag Prasad from Folksdeal spoke about the problems of the cashless economy and addressed issues like number of citizens versus number of citizens connected to the internet, availability of reliable internet connectivity, time taken for transactions, battery issues, shutting down of digital wallet remotely and the difculties of language.
Mr BA Khan from Cyberdefencely spoke about how Social Media Accounts are hacked and how to secure them, some of their achievements like protection of Howrah Police Website, basic concepts of ethical hacking and much more. The audience enlightened and aware about the threats in the digital world carried back sufcient amount of knowledge about cyber security, the most important security above all other security systems today. In a world prone to rising amount of cyber-attacks, the 4th Best Media School in the country, iLEAD, The Institute of Leadership, Entrepreneurship and Development prepares everyone with tools for Cyber Security and offers a course.
Cyber Security Course at iLEAD
iLEAD in association with Cyberdefencely is also organising a crash course on Cyber Security in February, aimed to enable and empower participants with defense strategies and protect themselves and their organizations from all forms of cyber-attacks. The course will cover topics like Introduction to Ethical Hacking, Email Security, Mobile Security, Social Media Security, Password Security, Defense against Cyber Abuse and much more. Cyberdefencely founded in the year 2015 aims to create awareness among people deprived of the knowledge ofCyber Security.
