Essay Sample on What challenges does data security face as more people are online today than they were a decade ago?

Introduction 

This essay is about explaining the challenges faced by society as a whole as more and more people are using the internet and social media. There has been a revolutionary change in internet users in the world since the past decade.It has various advantages and the information is valuable on a click at the same time it has truly made the world a smaller place. However every coin has two sides and this paradigm shift has adversely affected Individuals , businesses and government in more than one way.

Individuals 

There are numerous data threats for an individual in this technological era. These challenges are concerned with the ways third parties handle the information they hold about the individual. These threats principally attain unauthorized access and control on personal information like private photos,videos, passwords, social media ,etc. All this information is present in a lot of obvious places on the computer or cloud(network). In case, when shopping online, then have to type in the name and address and other related personal info. The data brokers are specialized in creating in depth profiles of individuals for advertisers.A single profile might draw upto 1,500 data points.This can include a person’s sexuality, browsing history,political affiliation,bank records and even medical records.Social media platforms,websites and mobile applications collect, process and profile data into statistics that are ready to be sold.These data are compiled about you and maybe used sometime later. Uploading data containing information about geographical location which can help others to track down, information that other people provide through chats,information about your devices and its settings, info about visiting and using other websites that have integrated social media services and transport them to unimaginable places and can be used for malicious purposes and support web attacks.In the views of  Kauthamy et al(2017) These threats could be easily achieved by breaching system security, malvertising which is most common where people come under the trap of infected advertisements , so just by a single click , a malware software gets downloaded in your system or device. Some examples of these malvertisements are fraud job applications, fraud lotteries or bank details, items for free, etc

Another common threat is of password attacks, when a stranger tries to get into the system, email accounts, bank accounts, social media handles and crack your password for misusing personal data.

Business

With more and more people getting online , small , medium and large size business are facing various sets of problems , namely :

• DATA THEFT: Many hackers use automated bots to scour the internet searching for website vulnerabilities and these bots don’t take the size of your business into consideration before hacking and getting unauthorised access to it. Data can even be compromised by error or employee negligence, like having a weak passcode or accepting a phishing attempt (In this a victim receives what seems like a legitimate email, where clicking on any links or downloading any attachments can transfer the data existing in the whole network.
• Another common threat is MALWARE or Malicious Software , which simply is any software written with a sole intent of doing harm to data, devices, or people. And some are more destructive than others ,ranging from locking down your computers and stealing your data all the way up to the destruction of your entire network.In the opinion of Ellery(2019)Malware is sneaky, sometimes, it’s obvious when your site is infected but others are just running around in the background not impacting performance,so you suspect nothing. Some common examples of malwares are viruses or trojan horses which result in deleting, corrupting files and opening up back doors to your computer or network access allowing different threats in.
•  SPYWARE: This threat enables hackers to silently hide on a network or computer and they can easily record the keystrokes, collecting things like passwords or credit card numbers or even employee ID’s or various data of different backgrounds from the organisation or workplace finances and strategies can be shared out.
• DDOS( DISTRIBUTED DENIAL OF SERVICE ATTACK):This threat is not much commonly known like malware but is as completely destructive like that.As mentioned ny vijaylaxmi(2021) In a DDoS attack the hacker floods a computer or network with fake requests in an attempt to block legitimate requests from coming through. In the words of Kajal and Sardana(2020),The main goal of it is to make computers or particular business networks unavailable to visitors by temporarily or even indefinitely blocking its connection to the internet, making it hard to get to the main business website which eventually results in a loss in trust, a loss in revenue and serious damage to the reputation of business.

Government 

The governmental organisations are the major targets of data breaching and cyber crime activities, as these organisations attain so much variant and valuable information about the citizens ranging from passport details, birth certificates,mark sheets,municipal and local data, censex,etc. In the views of Kaushik(2021)Practically these government agencies are dependent on outdated computers for data security building.Data security faults have been so persuasive in these government agencies, giving a simultaneous rise to the security threats.As an outcome, hackers see these governmental agencies as an easy target These data breaches are helpful in exposing social security numbers,personal information about an individual, financial details and lots of tiny bits of sensitive data.The data gained from these governmental organisations is accurate and there’s no chance of any flaw in these, so they are used for many kinds of malfunctions like fraud passports,fake academic and qualification degrees, and for many more destructional ways.

Conclusion 

As mentioned by Brener(2018) “Cyber security is a shared responsibility and it boils down to this: In cybersecurity the more systems we secure, the more secure we all are.”

The above essay covered all the aspects of data security challenges in the fields of business,governmental or public organisations and even about the cyber threats faced by an individual. Though these are not all the security threats need to be aware of, but they are the most common ones to occur in the provided fields.They are all preventable with the right security plan in place such as installment of a firewall or any antivirus softwares.p

References

Ellery, A., 2019. Hybrid AI as a defence against cyber-interference of military satellites.

Kauthamy, K., Ashrafi, N. and Kuilboer, J.P., 2017, April. Mobile devices and cyber security-An exploratory study on user’s response to cyber security challenges. In International Conference on Web Information Systems and Technologies (Vol. 2, pp. 306-311). SCITEPRESS.

Kajal, A. and Sardana, G., 2020. PROTECTION FROM CYBER ATTACKS USING IDS SECURITY MECHANISM WITH RANDOM FOREST CLASSIFIER: A REVIEW. Journal of Critical Reviews, 7(19), pp.8516-8525.

vijaya Lakshmi, D., 2021. A Review On Cyber Security Challenges And Resolutions For Intelligent Transportation System. Elementary Education Online, 20(5), pp.4499-4504.

Kaushik, K., 2021. A Systematic Approach to Develop an Advanced Insider Attacks Detection Module. Journal of Engineering and Applied Sciences, 8(1), pp.33-41.

Brenner, S.W., 2014. Cyberthreats and the Decline of the Nation-State. Routledge.