Are you Cyber-plegic?

Vikash Kumar Singh of QUIK (Quest Institute of Knowledge), Thane (Maharashtra) stresses the need for cyber literacy to stay safe on the World Wide Web.

Today loads of information is available at our fingertips. But are we using it in the right manner? Or are we “Cyber-plegic”? To a great extent, we are. We buy latest gadgets, devices without bothering about security.

Organisations think they are secure because they have the latest IT Security equipment, government does not heed to the repeated advice given by security agencies on cyber attacks, while individuals think they have antivirus on their devices and PCs to keep them secure from hackers. What they are not aware about is that they are being watched! And in matter of seconds their information can be taken away. Almost on frequent intervals we see “Mother of all cyber attacks” and we assume “Oh it’s not me”.

We use Facebook as a social network site. Facebook says it inadvertently exposed six million users' phone numbers and e-mail addresses to unauthorised viewers over the last year. Was your account one of them? Remember, you can be the next target, if you are not aware of the modus-operandi of hackers. Credit card frauds, online transactions going awry, data being stolen, phishing attacks, malwares etc are some of the activities conceptualised and executed by hackers.

What is the solution?  

To protect information and prevent cyber attacks, the Indian government recently released the National Cyber Security Policy 2013 in order to safeguard critical data of the country.

Just learn to protect yourself and IT assets from malicious attackers. Various institutes run IT Security courses. Prominent amongst them are authorised training partners of CompTIA, SANS and EC Council. They are the market leaders in IT security training and certifications. These certifications are one of the pre-requisites for anyone who would like to get into the IT Security domain. Freshers can expect decent salaries.

 Know more about: EC Council Certified Secure Programmer (ECSP)