The digitalized world that we are living in, is a world filled with fast developing technologies, innovations, discoveries and growth in numerous spheres of life. It would not be wrong to state that internet has been playing the most significant role in making the world a digitalized one. Today, we are able to access the internet with just a single click on our mouse or just by a single tap on the screens of our smartphones. However, with the advent of such a powerful tool i.e. internet, severe issues related to the digital gadgets have also entered the picture. So it would not be wrong to state that, although internet has helped immensely to make our lives easier, yet there are some crucial aspects that we need to be aware and alert about, like the occurrence of cybercrimes in the digital space that affects our personal physical lives.

What is “Cybercrime”?

To explain in a brief manner, the term “cybercrime” refers to the crimes that occur via the virtual/digital space. In case of cybercrimes, the computer plays a very important and active role, as it is used as an instrument to further illegal ends, such as committing fraud, stealing identities, trafficking in child pornography, trafficking in intellectual property, or violating someone’s privacy. In addition, the number of cybercrime cases have been increasing over the years and the cause for this increase can be the fact that computers have become central to commerce, entertainment, and government.

What is the difference between traditional crime and cybercrime?

In case of traditional crimes, the criminals do not require a computer in order to commit a fraudulent act, to traffic in child pornography and intellectual property, to steal an identity, or to even violate someone’s privacy. However, in case of cybercrimes the digital computer and internet plays a crucial and active role, as the attacks do not take place on a physical body, but instead the attacks are done on the personal or corporate virtual body. Moreover, in this digital age our virtual identities are extremely crucial elements of our everyday life. Thus, to seek protection against such cyberattacks and crimes has become a mandatory aspect.

Listed below are five basic ways to avoid cyber crime:

1. Keep Your Software Up to Date: When you keep a check on updating your software from time to time, it can be very beneficial for you and your device. Software update might include of repairing of security holes that have been discovered, fixing of computer bugs, removing of computer bugs, addition of new features to your device and removal of the outdated ones. Thus, updating the software helps to remove the critical vulnerabilities that hackers might use to access your devices. Listed below are a few tips in order to help you with the software updating procedure:

• Turn on automatic system updates for your devices/devices.
• Make sure your desktop web browser uses automatic security updates.
• Keep your web browser plugins like Flash, Java, etc. updated.

2. Use Anti-Virus Protection and Firewall: Installing anti-virus (AV) protection software has been found to be a very effective solution in fighting the malicious attacks. The AV software blocks the malware and other malicious viruses, preventing them from entering your device and compromising your data. However, you should always remember that you must purchase the anti-virus software from trusted vendors only and that you should run only one AV tool on your device.

Regarding firewall, it helps to defend your data against malicious attacks, by shielding your computer or network from malicious or unnecessary network traffic. It further prevents malicious software from accessing a computer or network via the internet, and determines what traffic is allowed to enter your device.

3. Do not Use Public Wi-Fi: In places like a park or an airport, whenever you connect to a WiFi connection that is listed as, “Free Public WiFi”, there are high chances that hackers might gain unauthorized access to your information. Login in to such networks might allow the hackers to have access to your sensitive data. Instead you must use the public Wi-Fi using a Virtual Private Network (VPN). By using VPN software, the traffic between your device and the VPN server is encrypted, for which it becomes more difficult for a cybercriminal to obtain access to your data on your device. Moreover, you can also use your cell network if you do not have a VPN.
4. Use Strong Passwords: Strong passwords help to keep the hackers out of your data. The stronger the password is the more protected your computer will be from hackers and malicious software.

In 2017, the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s (NIST) put forward a new password policy framework which emphasized on some crucial points that have been listed below –

• You should avoid adopting a mixture of upper case letters, symbols, and numbers, and instead should opt for something that will be easier to remember.
• The password must consist of at least eight characters and a maximum of 64 characters.
• The same password should not be used twice, instead reset your password, and change it once per year as a general refresh.
• The password should contain at least one lowercase letter, one uppercase letter, one number, and four symbols but not the following &%#@_.
• Never leave a password hint out in the open or make it publicly available for the hackers to see.

* Maintaining a strong password for all the accounts on your computer is a must.

To learn about NIST’s latest password guidelines and best practices for 2020 click on “NIST2022“.

5. Be Aware and Alert About Phishing Scams: Phishing is one of
   the easiest forms of cyberattacks. It is also one of the easiest to fall for. Phishing is primarily carried out over email, via malicious links or attachment that infects the user’s system with malware, trojan, etc. However, the scam has now spread beyond suspicious emails to phone calls.

In the recent times, most of the criminals turn towards online scams with the goal to steal your personal information and to trick you (the target) into doing what the scammer wants. Listed below are some of the preventive measures against Phishing –

• Avoid opening emails sent by people you do not know.
• Hover over a link to discover where it directs to, just to be safe.
• Always be suspicious of the emails sent to you. Do not forget to check where it came from and if there are several grammatical errors.
• Keep in mind that malicious links can come from your known people as well, if they have been infected too.

The above mentioned points will help you in staying alert and secure from the cyber attacks, if any are aimed in your way. However, if you want any further clarifications you can directly contact us at ujudebug@gmail.com

To know more about our works click on “UJUDEBUG“.

Nikita Buragohain