Top stats and facts to know about Cyber Security!

This is the Digital Era and cyber attacks are proliferating every day. Being the “Month of Cyber Security Awareness”, I would like to share some aspects towards the importance of Cyber Security Awareness in the context of “Why?” and “How is this relevant to me?”

Thanks to cheap data packages offered by Telecom service providers and mobile manufacturers, attacks have become a piece of cake for cybercriminals.

According to a global survey, Indians are topping the list of “mobile data usage” and are growing by 16% Year over Year (YOY). Some intriguing questions arise while looking at this stats like How are these smart phones used by Indians? How smart is the Smartphone? Who is actually getting benefitted by these cheap data tariffs?

Take a look at this statistics to know the answers to all the questions. -

The average data usage by Smartphone users is 11GB/month and 65% of this mobile data is used in watching videos. (Ex: YouTube etc.)

- Over 90% of the Smartphone’s used by Indians are Android, which is powered by Google. Check out here for your reference!

While this is the case on mobile and data usage, let’s look at lot devices. We all have an assumption that our smart homes, i.e. our lot devices powered with internet access are making our lives sophisticated. Well, it seems to be the other way around!

The cyber attacks that happen around the world are actually through loT devices. Smart TVs, Cameras, Wi-Fi routers are the top loT devices that are compromised by hackers easily.

This should throw a question to you right now. Am I worth being hacked? What does the hacker achieve from hacking my loT devices? Cameras used for surveillance at home are being tapped by hackers to intrude into your privacy.

How many of us are keen on Google’s account activity? How often do you check what is captured by Google? Do you remember the restaurant you visited yesterday or a week before? Do you remember the time? You may need a few minutes to recall, however, Google can give it to you in seconds.

How many of us are aware that the Application Manager (Android 6.0 & above) cautiously decides to bar the non-related access by an application which we installed in our smart phones?

For example: What is the necessity of UBER to read my messages? Well, maybe to auto-read the OTPs and to auto fill-in when required? Probably, Yes! Why does UBER need camera access? Not sure? But we’ve already granted the application to access our camera.

This is exactly how hackers get into your device and reach you! These features which are not required are given access with or without our knowledge, and hackers brilliantly make use of this access and read your messages, and even turn your camera ON & OFF without your knowledge.

How many of us have noticed when we search something in the Google (i.e, places to visit in Kerala or when you search products on Flipkart / Amazon or any other online websites) and we will be popped up with the advertisement's that relates our search while we are keen surfing on the internet? Is it accidental/correlated? Definitely NOT. There is something called “cookies” stored in plain text on our browsers whenever we visit the websites which will store certain data to enhance the user’s experience. These cookies data used by e-commerce/advertisement agencies to show relevant info for you!

We are actually trading our privacy and person data with such unnecessary features of our Smartphone’s and by granting unwanted access. Am I trying to scare you away from using Smartphone’s? Or am I asking that we go back to the basic phone era? Absolutely NOT!

It is our responsibility to know the device, to know the product we are using and also to beware of the disadvantages or threat it could bring in. It is very important to learn your device and to know the limitations that should be provided to the loT features and also to our Smartphone’s. In order to ensure our privacy and to secure sensitive data, it is important that we use these devices with limitations to features.

I would like to conclude this article with the old proverb “Prevention is better than cure”