Digital technology is changing the way businesses are run and the way people lead their lives today. Every day, new ways of working, dealing and interacting with each other emerge. As our digital footprint grows exponentially, we are forming our own online identities. Digital security is essential for protecting these identities. It includes the tools we can use to protect our identity, assets and technology in the online and mobile world. All of this becomes imperative as criminals are always finding new ways to steal user information. IT security measures essentially aim to protect sensitive data, which helps prevent identity theft and safeguard your privacy. All new and existing business and data processes require the inclusion of a data security review to make data secure against loss and secure against unauthorized access. Thus, privacy, security and ownership of data have become a very important and relevant issue today.
What is digital security?
Digital security is the preventive protection of our online presence. It includes tools such as antivirus software, web services, biometrics, and secure personal devices that do not provide vital information such as full name, address, passwords, banking information, etc. The SIM card in your mobile phone, the secure chip in your contactless payment card or an electronic passport give consumers the freedom to communicate, travel, shop and work using their digital identity in a convenient, enjoyable and secure way.
Figure 1: A representative image of digital security
However, our digital footprint that involves the use of electronic products that use advanced technology is also fraught with risks. As we surround ourselves with more and more connected devices, our once simple networks become more complex, rife with many unknown vulnerabilities. With this in mind, the challenge is to provide the kind of robust protections that our network needs as it expands to join the Internet of Things (IoT) and to do so in a way that is broadly accessible to users.
What makes you vulnerable to data theft?
During 2016, cybercrime reached an all-time high and consumers, even in an advanced country like the United States, lost billions of dollars due to identity theft and fraud. An estimated 15.4 million consumers have been affected by some type of identity theft, up from 13.1 million in 2015. Despite the use of secure EMV chip cards, fraud losses totaled $16 billion as About 1 in 16 adults in the US has been a victim of identity and card theft. cloning.
Figure 2: Representational image of online frauds are real threats – beware of hackers
In addition to card cloning, which allows criminals to steal account data and write it to counterfeit cards used to make fraudulent purchases in stores, cyberthefts include unintended purchases made by a fraudster, usually over the phone, without the need for a physical card. If hackers somehow access your banking or financial information, they can use your credit cards and apply for loans without you knowing. A fraudster may try to impersonate a trusted entity via phone call (phone/mobile/IVR) and try to obtain your confidential information such as CVV/OTP/Card PIN/Internet Password; financial account details and personal information. The criminal may try tricks like asking to download remote access mobile apps that help connect one mobile device to another. Once downloaded, a code/OTP is generated on your device, which the fraudster asks you to share, followed by a request to grant permissions. Your cell phone will virtually be in the hands of the fraudster with all your confidential data. The fraudster can steal and carry out fraudulent transactions through mobile banking or payment-related applications using UPI (Unified Payment Interface), the real-time payment system platform.
How to maintain Digital Security on your devices
Fig. 3: Representational Image of Fundamental Security Check for Cyber Protection
The following are some simple tips to ensure your devices are safe and secure for use:
- Put a password on each of your devices so that you are the only person with access to them. Your devices contain a lot of important information and you wouldn't want it to end up in the hands of the wrong person.
- Install reliable antivirus software to help fight viruses and ensure your devices are protected from malware.
- Do not click on links in unsolicited emails or advertisements. Instead, delete the emails and install reliable ad-blocking software to prevent them from appearing again.
- When creating passwords, try to create ones that are difficult to guess.
- Be sure to read the policies and terms of agreement when signing up for any social media or online account. This ensures that you sign up with full knowledge of your rights as a user and how the information you provide may be used.
- Do not make all the information and posts on your profile public on social media; Instead, make it visible only to your friends, this way you control who sees the information you post.
- Avoid downloading any mobile apps suggested by third parties.
- Always read the terms and conditions before downloading any application on your mobile device.
- Never log into any payment-related app if you suspect your device has been compromised.
- Do not click on links sent by unknown senders and always visit a website by typing the URL in the address bar.
- Update your latest mobile number from bank records and change your PIN/passwords frequently.
- Review your credit card and bank statements regularly.
- The Bank or its employees will never ask for your card number/card expiry date/CVV/OTP/Internet Password. Do not share these details with anyone over the phone or email.
Tools to help protect your identity online
Digital security allows people to safely use the internet, social media and online banking and protects them against risks such as identity theft and fraud. However, it is also important to be aware that your personal information must be absolutely protected as it could be used to steal your identity. It is also important not to disclose any of your banking details in public as this could lead to people around you stealing your important and private information.
Fig. 4: Representational image of your data security An asset you cannot lose!
Digital video/audio surveillance and image storage/retrieval are capable of being integrated with all types of surveillance and alarm systems. They all support connecting to local network/region infrastructure to provide full access control and remote monitoring functionality globally. It's important to practice good online security habits, and these safeguards can help protect your online presence. With identity theft and fraud on the rise, it's more important than ever to keep your identity as secure as possible.
Below are a few more steps you can take to increase your online security:
Managing your data: You need to develop a plan to review the security status and policies of your data. It involves creating routine processes to securely access, manipulate, and store data. You should know what levels of protection are needed to keep data confidential and protected from loss. It is advisable to scale down, keep only the data necessary for your current business routine, and securely archive unnecessary data or destroy older data and remove it from all computers and other devices. Equally important is backing up data in a safe location so it can be recovered if equipment fails, is lost or stolen.
Assign the data a sensitivity level based on who should have access to it and how much harm would be caused if it were disclosed. It is vital to properly handle sensitive data such as passwords, financial and health data, identity numbers, sex life, biometric and genetic data, race, religion or political choice.
Free Credit Report: It's important to keep tabs on your credit reports to review them for correctness. Fraudsters can open accounts and loans in victims' names. Therefore, it is very necessary to do yourself a favor and take a look at your credit report at least once a year. If you notice any discrepancies that indicate you are a victim of fraud, you can contact your credit card issuing bank and credit reporting agencies like CIBIL so that they are aware and can help save your creditworthiness.
Fraud alert: If you have been a victim of identity theft in the past or are at risk due to a data breach, consider placing a fraud alert on your credit report. This protection tool makes it much more difficult for identity thieves to open accounts in your name. Before a lender can open an account or issue credit, they must first contact you. A fraud alert generally provides 90 days of protection but can be removed at any time. However, if you plan to open an account in your name, you will have to wait as the process may be extended because of this additional security.
Credit freeze: For more complete security, you may consider placing a credit freeze or security on your credit report. This tool allows you to restrict access to your credit information. However, with a credit freeze, you must take the following points into consideration:
Most lenders will want to review your credit report before approving you for a new loan or line of credit. A credit freeze will make loan processes much slower.
You will need to unlock your credit so creditors can view it.
You must freeze your credit with each credit bureau separately.
Credit Monitoring Services: Staying up to date with your credit and identity can be time-consuming. To reduce some of the burden on your shoulders, consider signing up for a credit monitoring service. These services offer credit monitoring, identity insurance, and identity restoration. If you've ever been a victim of data theft, it's good to have professionals on your side to help you recover.
Recent government efforts towards digital security
Interestingly, India, one of the largest software producers in the world, finds itself in a unique situation. We have many highly qualified people in the country, but in much of the country we are still developing and have a low Internet penetration rate. When it comes to personal protection, most of us are content to install some antivirus software on our PCs and hope for the best. But in fact, the country needs advanced data protection, security and privacy laws.
The long-term solution is to make India a cash-strapped country. This can only happen with more and more digital transactions. Demonetization has definitely reduced the time spent on digital migration from years to months. Similarly, implementation of Goods and Services Tax (GST), Digital India and Aadhaar are important steps in digitalizing the economy. Millions of taxpayers are on a unified platform for the first time and each declaration is completed digitally. However, all this can only be a success when users remain alert against any theft of sensitive personal information.
We use the global Internet for our daily activities. If the data is encrypted, it can be a good security measure. If there is any flaw in the data, it is the responsibility of the organization concerned to correct it immediately. The government regulates different databases through various laws and regulations related to data protection, privacy, and security. It has begun the exercise of increasing data security and addressing fears of cyber attacks, and its efforts include promoting research to increase the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in this regard. A high-level committee has been created specifically to promote AI research in the field of legal, ethical, regulatory and cyber security. Significantly, the government's focus is on encouraging R&D for new emerging technologies and innovation in data protection.
Significantly, the National Informatics Center (NIC), which comes under the Union Ministry of Information Technology, takes several steps to strengthen cyber security at central, state and district levels. It is working not only at the software level, but also at the hardware level, ranging from computers to mobile phones, to safeguard crucial data. In this context, several security dimensions are extensively addressed, including networks, endpoint security, data point security and application security. In fact, data is no less than any asset nowadays, so the government is taking it seriously, but each of us must safeguard our data against all types of potential breaches.