Cybersecurity: Threats and Strategies for Modern Technologies

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of cybersecurity threats and strategies across various modern technologies. It begins by examining internet security, discussing privacy issues, physical attack vulnerabilities, and strategies such as firewalls and ad blockers. The report then moves on to mobile device security, detailing web-based, network-based, application-based, and physical threats, along with mitigation strategies like downloading apps from official stores and avoiding unsecured networks. Email security is then addressed, highlighting threats such as malware, spam, and phishing, and suggesting strategies like establishing information security policies and training. Finally, the report explores cloud security, focusing on data loss, privacy concerns, and hacking, and recommends access control and authentication measures. The report concludes by emphasizing the importance of using these technologies carefully to maximize benefits while minimizing risks.

Introduction to Financial & data literacy

Introduction
With the development in the internet technology and numerous communication
solutions over the years, the lives of the human beings have become highly dependent on
emails, cloud technology and mobile devices. The above technologies facilitate the sharing of
the ideas and resources with billions of the connected people. These technologies have not
only made the communication processes easier and agile but has also led to the reduction in
the costs. However, with the benefits of these technologies, there have risen numerous threats
in the form of the data, privacy breaches and others. New spamming techniques have
developed largely in the form of software attacks in the form of Viruses, Worms, Trojan
Horses, Malwares and others. If left unaddressed, these threats and infections cannot not only
lead to the economic losses for the entity, but also undermine the confidence of the
stakeholders and thus the goodwill of the enterprise. The work is aimed at analysing the
various threats surrounding each of these technologies and the strategies that can be adopted
to safeguard the interests of the users and minimize then threats.
Internet Security
The term “internet of things” has become synonymous with the modern business
operations, lives of the individuals and overall society. The varied areas that have been
conquered by the use of the internet technologies are the education, healthcare, research,
financial data transactions and others (Abomhara & Koien, 2015). The vast connectivity and
numerous users have also raised the demand for the robust security in response to the
enhanced use and the complexities. The major threats surrounding the use of the internet are
elaborated as follows.
Threats
Privacy is the chief issue in use of the environment owing to the vulnerable internet
environment. The connection of the entities, and the communication of the data though
exchange renders the privacy of the users to be a sensitive subject. The issue of privacy is
vital in various processes such as data collection, data sharing and management. The hackers
and intruders play on the vulnerabilities of system, software design and the internal policies
of an enterprise to gather the private information of the users. The data of the users can be
either lost or modified by the hackers for their own purposes. The second major threat that is
related to the first one in the use of the internet is the issue of resiliency against contact with

the physical attacks. When the internet related devices are left unattended in the physical
locations, the intruders can capture the device, modify the programming of the device and
replace them with malicious codes that are under the control of them.
Strategies
The strategies to address the threats to the internet use are elaborated as follows. The
unauthorized access to or from a private network can be prevented through the installation of
a firewall. The use of the firewall aids in the scanning of each and every packet received to a
particular computer system and thereby it is either allowed or blocked. The firewalls make
use of the various types of signatures and host conditions to deny or allow traffic to the
system. The second measure that can be enabled is the use of the ad blocker. Ad-blockers aid
in the prevention of the ads and s that have the ability to get past the anti-virus scanners. The
ads can be stopped from being displayed and thus ensures privacy of the users. Further in
terms of the physical access, the data repositories must be secured with strong passwords and
must be accessible to only a trustworthy section of managers only.
Mobile Device Security
Threats
Just like the infection of the personal computers, there are variety of means that can
pose significant threats to the mobile devices of the individuals as well. The mobile devices
threats are majorly divided into four categories namely the web-based threats, network-based
threats, application-based threats, and physical threats. The malware can perform malicious
actions in the phone which may lead to charging of the phone bill, give an attacker control
over the device or even send unsolicited messages to the one’s contact list. The malware can
gather sensitive information such as location, contact lists, personally identifiable information
and use them at places where such personal information is desired and which is otherwise not
available (Roman, Lopez & Mambo, 2018). The vulnerable applications also pose threats to
the mobile devices which may lead to the performance of the undesirable actions on the
device, such as starting or stopping a service from functioning correctly, or may even lead to
the downloading of the applications to the device without the knowledge of the owners. One
of the yet another key security threat is in the form of the eavesdropping. The eavesdropping
threat is characterised by the tracking users, logging their application and even listening to
the conversations (Yu, Jin & Nahrstedt, 2016).

Strategies
The strategies for the prevention of the said security issues are mentioned here under.
The users must ensure to download the applications only from the official app stores and not
by clicking on the random pages. Further it must be ensured that the devices are not
connected to the unsecured wireless networks or the networks that are connected by
numerous users by the use of the same passwords (He, Chan & Guizani, 2015). It must be
further ensured that in the event of the usage of the public internet facilities, the high profile
complex and sensitive transactions such as the internet banking are not carried on which
involves the use of the bank details and other sensitive information (Wang, Hahn & Sutrave,
2016). In addition to the above, it is imperative to note that personal firewall on computers
are installed and updated to detect the latest virus signature or malicious code definition.
Email Security
One of the most common tools for the communication of the messages over the
internet is by the use of the emails. The email system is comprised of two primary
components namely the mail clients and mail servers. The fact that email is widely deployed,
understood and used to communicate with the untrusted external organizations, it is often
exposed as the target of attacks.
Threats
The chief security threats to the email are explained as follows. The attackers are
increasingly making use of the malware, or “malicious software to deliver a range of attacks
to the users of such emails. These malicious software are loaded by viruses, worms, Trojan
horses, and spyware that give the controllers of these the access of the workstations, servers,
sensitive information, thereby rendering them the power to perform other malicious actions
and monitor the activities of the users at all times. The yet another threat to the emails is in
the form of the unsolicited commercial e-mails, also known as the spam mails and phishing.
The users of emails are often sent bulk commercial e-mail messages to disrupt the
productivity of the users and at times these mails often ask sensitive information of the users
by which the individuals are tricked (Stembert, Padmos, Bargh, Choenni & Jansen, 2015).

Strategies
The strategies that can be employed by the users of the emails to safeguard the
interests and information are elaborated as follows. It is imperative for the management of the
organisations to establish information security policies in the form of acceptable procedures,
assessments of the risks, contingency planning, configuration management and others. The
members must be provided guidance and training to raise awareness of what information
must not be shared via emails such as phone numbers, credit card numbers and others. The
organisation must ensure the elimination of the vulnerabilities with the aid of the patches,
configurations, or upgrades. The log files must be carefully analysed on periodic basis to gain
an insight of the threat email. The next strategy involves the maintenance of the integrity of
the data on the mail server. This can be done with the aid of the backing up the mail server on
a regular basis which aids in the reduction of the downtime. In addition the regulations on the
backup must be complied with for the purpose of the archiving of data and information.
Cloud Security
Cloud computing is one of the widely celebrated innovations of the modern landscape
of the internet and technology. The fact of the popularity is evident as the biggest of the
technology leaders like Amazon and Google are engaged in the offering or the use of the
cloud computing services for the purpose of the storage, extraction and use of the data over
the internet. The services provided are in the form of storage and software for customer
relationship management, database, payment, and sales services. The security challenges
faced by the user of the cloud computing are elaborated as follows.
Threats
The major risks faced in the cloud environment is that of the data loss, privacy
concerns, hacking of the sensitive information, local network access from the illegal users
and likewise. The hackers can successfully infiltrate a cloud to place viruses and worms for
the purpose of stealing sensitive information of the users such as credit card numbers,
financial records, significant document numbers and others (Islam, Manivannan & Zeadally,
2016). The said information can be sold further to the competitors of the users and cause the
business losses. One of the yet another threat to the cloud security is that there can be
permanent loss of customer data unless there are sufficient measures employed in place to

plan for the backup of the data. It is further imperative to note that the nature of the cloud is
that of multitenant. This is because there are shared resources and memory that may create
new attack and higher probability of risky surface for the malicious actors.
Strategies
The strategies that can be adopted to address the security threats in the cloud
environment are described as follows. The chief mitigating step that the users of the cloud
must take note of is that of the control of the access of the service at various stages. The
organisation rights of the use of the cloud service must be allocated efficiently at all the
stages staring from the initial registration of new users and the final de registration of the
users as well (Sabahi, 2011). The rights of the access of the operating systems, application
systems must be provided to the trusted users only and proper authentication means must be
adopted.
Conclusion
The discussions in the previous parts aid to conclude that the widespread dependency
on the use of the internet facility, emails, mobile devices, and cloud computing services are
unavoidable in the present era of globalised business and other operations. The numerous
users of the said technology results in the systems and processes being exposed to the
significant risks which if not addressed can lead to the significant economic and goodwill
losses to the entity. The above work analysed the various facets of the chief four technologies
in context of use of internet and the exchange of information. The chief threats identified
ranged from the data and privacy breaches in internet, eavesdropping in mobile devices, spam
and phishing mails in email technology and information leakage in the use of the cloud
services. These threats combined with other threats may steal the sensitive information of the
individuals. The work also addressed the security measures that can be employed to address
such issues such as installation of firewalls, develop IT policies, strong passwords and others.
Hence, it can be stated that the technologies must be used carefully to yield maximum results.

References
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