Cyber security - What is it and why is it important?

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The word security means to secure. To live without fear. To be save from disaster or free from crime and violence. Some compound have high fence with big gate. Not just that, they have security Men and security Dogs. All of this is to feel safe when they are in their house. Now we are not talking about your house now. It is about your computer and Internet How you will secure your data in internet.

What is Cyber security?

When you hear cyber, it has to do with internet, computer network , technology so cyber security is anything you can do save your computer, mobile phone, severs and data from hackers.

What are the things you need to secure?

Secure your network from malicious software known as malware. Secure your computer from intruders. This guy's are very smart looking for any opportunity to strike. They can attack at anytime.

Another thing is to secure your applications This is very very important especially when you are designing a program. Any mistake of in security can lead to disaster. Make sure you have information security which help in protecting all the data.

Teach others important of this this goes for people who have cyber cafe center. Teach anyone who used your computer to log out after use. Many have fall victim of this. After using a computer, they fail to close all the app they opened before log out. If the next person to use it is a thief.

He will steal all the information and use it to access your account . He can send you an email from a company. The email will come like genuine email and when you click it. All your private data is gone.

Cyber criminals are everywhere, in the medical, in business in social media platform, in Bank I mean as long as you use internet, you may be affected in one way or the other. They are very smart in getting all your Data from the site you visit regularly or from phone number.

You have experience it or hear someone said, my Facebook account was hacked. This criminals will hide under another person page they have hacked and start sending messages to everyone in that person's contact pretending to be that person. It happens daily centralized platform.

some cyber threats you must know

Cybercrime, this once are group of actors who sit down in a room to track business Men and women for selfish gain. Their target maybe to negotiate business with them as if they are real when they are not. If the person fall into their trap, they will call the person fool. It can also be just one person and he is out to dupe people.

Many of them can come to you pretending to be in serious need. They can even ask you to help them with your phone to make call that this and that happened to them. All that they are trying to do is to have access to your phone. They are very smart in doing this. Behold all the information in your phone they will access it immediately.

Cybercrime We also have ciber-attacker or cybertrrrorism. They can manipulate computer. They have different software they build to help them accomplish this evil work. One of it is called Romance scam* This is a trap for those who are looking for partner. Here Men pretend to be women and women pretend to be Men. They chatt you , love you as if they are your opposite sex.

How do you find out. Before you fall in love. Simple ask him for a video call. He will start to give you excuse how busy they are and why they couldn't do video call immediately. While some will dress like woman, listen to their voice carefully. Be careful when it comes like that.

Another one is called Phishing . You have seen some warning here on hive asking you not to click on phishing link. This link is design in such a way that you will never know is from an enemy. It will appear legit and ask you for your information to fill it up. If you are careful, you will stop when it start asking for your debit card or BVN if you are from Nigeria. But if you are not, sorry they will dupe you .

Here in Nigeria, when it happens that way. The person will be in his house with his ATM card but will be receiving alert of debit from his bank . By then, they have access all the data and personal information. Imagine seeing your hard earned money going to where you don't know.

Tips to protect yourself from cyber criminals.

• Make sure you have strong password to your computer, your phone and your wallet . Do not use your date of birth as your password as it will be easy for them to know once they have access to your email. Do not save, your BVN number in your phone. Do not save your ATM card pin in your phone.

• Do not share your phone WiFi to strangers or use public WiFi as it could be dangerous. Do not open email that you don't really know the sender . Make sure to use antivirus software. And always update it. Keep it up to date so that it will give your computer the protection you need. There is a lot of ways to secure your computer, mobile phone, severs from cyber criminals...

Now that we have seen what cyber security is and the enemies we have. You can agree with me that there is need for cyber security. I will close this post by telling a short story if what happened to my neighbor last 2 weeks. She went to ATM machine to withdraw money. There was no network according to her. As she tries to bring out her card, it stuks inside.

The security Man standing told her to wait a little that the card will pop up. In less than a minute, the card came up and she removed it and put in her bag. Not knowing that it is not her ATM card that the mashine brought out. On her way back to the house, she received alert of 650k which was what she wanted to withdraw.

she thought that bank will reverse it not knowing that her money is gone. It was when she went back to the bank that it was discovered that her ATM card was swapped. The matter is on now in the trying to know who did it.

In conclusion, cyber criminals are real, cyber terrorism and cyber- attackers do not sleep. Just as we work hard to learn how to fight them. Them too learn how to attack us