Cyber News

We’re about halfway through National Cyber Security Awareness Month. I wanted to talk about the importance of securing your perimeter of online and network usage. Users tend to assume that security is an on-off switch that can be controlled or activated when and as often as needed. Experts in the cybersecurity industry are aware of this misconception. It is not sufficient to activate anti-malware and anti-virus software updates; it is also eminent to update the underlying operating system — especially when working with cloud and big data-based enterprises, both private and public.

Additional awareness should be embraced and adopted not only on wired but also wireless infrastructure. It is not as easy, but care must be exercised when accessing sites which do not begin with “https” on their URL.

The most important element is self-discipline and caution when browsing sites, downloading files, and accessing unknown or unsure sources of email. Also, training and education should be routinely and continuously conducted to educate users, managers, and IT and system administrators to follow certain password guidelines and schemes.

System recovery, backup, and updates must be routinely performed. Also, additional security algorithms must be used and devised always to combat, lessen, or deter attacks. Users must be aware of pop ups, ads, adware, malware, spyware, social engineering, and shoulder surfing, a way in which people can look over a user’s shoulder to obtain passwords or information they are inputting on their devices.

Always be leery of where you are sending and downloading your private data, especially when using the cloud. As a cloud security expert, I promote awareness of using the cloud as a convenience– but always exercise care and be alert. It is the price we pay for technological civilization. A byproduct of technological civilization and advancement is cybercrime. As we advance our technologies, we must also be prepared to secure these technologies. As such, we must also be prepared to sacrifice convenience. This is a fact.

Dr. Ihssan Alkadi is an adjunct professor at UMUC and is on the faculty at Southeastern Louisiana University in the Computer Science Department. Dr. Alkadi received his B.S. in Computer Science at SLU and went on to earn his M.S. in Systems Science and his Doctoral degree in Computer Science from Louisiana State University (LSU). His areas of expertise include software engineering, and Internet, HTML, and operating systems testing. His research interests include testing in object oriented systems, systems validation, and system verification. His current research is in cloud computing security and cybersecurity.