Note:
Readers may be aware of some of the following preventive steps through new channels, social media etc but unfortunately many do not follow in strict compliance and end up as “Victims” in the hands of Cyber Criminals who are very intelligent and informative in hacking and penetrating systems.
A detailed article is given elsewhere on the website about Cyber crimes and Cyber criminals, here I am dealing with preventive steps of such cyber crimes & Cyber Criminals.
This article is an attempt at highlighting preventive steps & Red flags as a caution to the general public.
The age-old saying is most appropriate in Fraud detection and prevention:“Prevention is better than cure.”
No Country, Individual, Company, Government or Agency is immune from Cyber-attacks and Cyber criminals with an intention at data theft and breach into systems for their innumerable criminal activities and for money. The following precautions or red alerts will at least keep you one step ahead of cyber criminals from breaching your systems and data:
All the following 20+1 preventive steps of cyber crimes are equally applicable to all types of organisations-Banks, Multinationals, big organisations, Individuals, Professionals and any person using computers systems, servers and internet, social media without exception:
1. First and foremost there should be effective anti-virus software with continuous updating and availability of latest patches from time to time.
2. Never fail to check the bank statement entries regularly and if you notice any transaction not belonging to you or you did not have a record, immediately sort the issue with the bankers.
3. Passwords are another area that one must keep in mind as the usage of all apps. E-mails, Bank accounts, Tax returns, Debit and credit cards, to name a few, ask for setting up a password. The password should be unique to the user, easy to remember and saved in a remote secure file and should be changed at regular intervals.
4.Utmost care should be taken in not responding to unsolicited mails, text messages, Emails regarding products services, jobs and even a purported mail from your bank asking you to update account information. One should never disclose any personal information, bank details etc over a phone call which the caller may identify with your bank.
5. Beware of Online offers from companies and persons that are not from any branded or repute organisations.
6. Always type the URL of a website when browsing, but do not click on any URL sent as attachment to any unsolicited E-Mail.
7. Avoid disclosing your personal information and family photos on some social media like Facebook etc despite privacy security still your information is vulnerable and may be misused by cyber criminals.
8. Your debit or credit card, CVV number usage must be solely restricted to secure & well-known websites only.
9. Take utmost care when the children are using mobiles and browsing and make sure they do not fall victims inadvertently and are harassed for money etc.
10. As reported in Mumbai Mirror website sometime back, Bank of Muscat lost a large sum of $40 million dollars in a weeks’ time. This happened as Hackers from Pune & Bangalore penetrated the high security systems of credit card companies. This happened by tricking the users by diverting them to the websites of criminals from links on social media or mails purported to be from banks and your own friends. Hence one should exercise extreme caution before “clicking” on any Link of a website if there is smallest of suspicion. As there is no point in “crying over spilt milk….” If one is not cautious.
11. Popups-One should be very careful while browsing with popups. At times if you allow them they may contain malicious software that is used to trick the users to go to another site like e-commerce, surveys with an ulterior motive to capture your data etc.
12. Two step verification is another is another safety measure used by some secure websites, which ask in addition to your pass word to confirm an SMS one-time unique code to type as a 2nd step of verification before the site can be accessed. It becomes very difficult for an Hacker in such instances to immediately crack the password and enter into the systems.
13. Another most important preventive step is to keep different pass words for different e-mails, and other websites instead of following only one for easy remembering. It is a dangerous practice if you use the same password to various websites and social media. Also make it a habit to regularly interchanging or changing the various passwords to be more secure.
14. Never transact on Public Hot-spots and Public Wi-Fi as they are unsecured and cyber criminals will be lurking behind and looking for anyone using such internet connections as they can easily hack and misuse the credit and debit cards in a matter of minutes.
15. Locking your computers, mobile phones are most Important so that no one can misuse your computer or phones without your knowledge. This is done by a single or multiple password and keep them secure by deliberate or inadvertent usage by unauthorized persons.
16. While conducting your business online, do not get carried away by low prices or discounts but do business only with reputed and known vendors and there can me dubious vendors or cyber criminals may be waiting to lure a person to his site with attractive terms of business. So, beware of such websites and vendors.
17.Always bring to the notice of Cyber Police stations or statutory authorities of any suspicious activity on the internet.
18. Government has set up separate Cyber cells to deal with rampant cyber criminals all over the states. Persons are trained in cyber crimes and forensic areas to deal with the criminals. Always there are public announcements by Government and Reserve Bank of India and other nationalized banks on media, newspapers about the precautions to be taken while transacting money. Public should pay special attention to such warnings and caution Notices.
19.Install WEP-Wireless Equivalent Privacy, which authenticates anyone who wants to access wireless network and encrypts all the traffic too. Though it is not the ultimate security but still acts as front door security that no one can enter unauthorized from the front. It Has also to be supported by a strong password.
20. Install Firewalls and enable spam blockers also to make sure to keep OFF the wireless remote local area network router by the administrator. Use of Virtual Private networks-VPN will ensure that only authorized persons can access and provides encryption.
20+1: The last but not the least, most important precaution is to “Backup” your data in external data drives and if it is voluminous and should be saved on different servers and at different locations especially in case of Banks, multinational companies and any big corporations, as despite all preventive steps there is no 100% guarantee that systems and data cannot be breached by cyber criminals in this age of continuous changes in Information & Technology fields.
I am hopeful that that the above 20+1 Preventive red alerts will help the public to mitigate the data theft, data breaches and harassment on social media from Cyber crimes and cyber criminals.