We all know the cyber security is important. Having a good password is important to keep confidential information protected. We know that having an anti-virus, anti-malware and spyware application do wonders especially when you’re connected into a network or the web. Having all those applications is a good thing but we also know that having a correct firewall setting is quite important as well.

However, what most of us don’t know and what we are forced to believe is that having these precautionary measures are just enough. Well, the truth is, they are not! It is time that you know the truth and expose some of the myths cyber security or cyber-rumors that we have believed for years. It’s been almost 22 years since the first famous piece of malware: the Morris worm spread via the internet. About 20 years ago, we only had to be concerned with viruses. Later there were also worms, Trojan horses, spam, spyware, phishing, root-kits, code injection and internet bots. To simplify we group them as malware. While the malware family has grown considerably the defenses have been few and hardly effective…

Let’s start of with anti-virus software and your system firewall. Despite what manufacturers say, despite what the advertisements say, despite what some of your friends might tell you, no anti-virus software or firewall for that matter is 100% effective. You need to understand that virus creators make malicious code so advanced that an anti-virus application is not yet capable of handling an attack coming from it.

Despite the regular updates released by anti-virus software companies, they cannot foresee what kinds of virus will come out next month or the month after that. They can only provide their customers with protection based on the virus that they know off and the potential virus that could come out. As mentioned or implied earlier, the best way to have a degree of protection is to combine these technologies together. Have separate anti-virus software installed and keep a strong firewall active.

Although, there might be a problem with some applications not working well together but conduct your own research and see which software works well together. Newer versions of anti-viruses also look at software behavior to detect malicious activity, but since it consumes more CPU cycles, most people turn them off! I’m always surprised when visiting friends and family, or even clients, that they show me their systems running “a bit strange lately” and the first thing I’ve noticed is that the 30 day demo anti-virus subscription has expired or they are running an obsolete version, which is useless since it offers very little protection, if any!

It is also important to know that because you have successfully installed a software application that’s the end of it. Unfortunately, you will also need to get the patches or updates that manufacturers release. These patches or updates are fixes on some little or sometimes big inconsistencies or bugs in the application. How to do it? This can take some planning and work. Microsoft releases all of their patches the second Tuesday of every month. Unfortunately in the Microsoft world, they don’t see the computer as a collection of applications on top of an integrated user-friendly operating system (OS,) just the OS and “other stuff”. So they don’t track categories of software installed or even care to update them. In order to update those programs, you will need third-party tools or the software package themselves which now opens more security issues!

Examples: Java and Adobe Acrobat Reader check every time you boot your computer to see if there are any updates [and they will update themselves unless you postpone the download.]

In the world of operating systems which are more user friendly and security intelligent, Linux and Apple OS X alert you when there are new software versions of the applications you have installed and can even install it for you… and if there is a critical patch required for the OS it can be downloaded and installed now, not some time in the future when it’s more convenient for the software manufacturer. All digitally signed and from a central repository! That’s better overall protection, so it’s no wonder there is very little malware for these operating systems!

Look into your installed applications and see it there is an automatic updating option, which there usually is, that allows you to automatically receive updates whenever manufacturers release a new version or an upgrade of the system.

Also, don’t believe that just because you have mainly personal and insignificant information in your computer that it’s not worth protecting at all. Please bear in mind that what you think is not important can turn out be quite useful for hackers. Every bit of information you have in your computer, email or any other system can be manipulated and used by hackers to access more of your confidential information or use it to gain some profit. Even if you keep your files in a computer not connected to any network, the one that a hacker gains access to can be used to attack other computers or cause problems with other systems. In the worst case, a hacker can steal your internet bandwidth or computer storage by converting your computer into an illegal file server so he or she can share with their accomplices!

Not being rich is not a good enough reason of being attacked as well. Hackers and identity thieves will grab any opportunity that they come across with. If they can get you personal information easily, they will do so and think about how they can use it for their personal gain and believe me, they will think of a way.

After we exposed some of these myths and now you know a bit more about the truth on cyber security, I hope you get a renewed conviction regarding cyber security. Your mind is your first line of defense. So train it well so you’ll be better protected… We will cover cyber security awareness and training in a future post!

Read
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malware
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patch_Tuesday
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mac_OS_X
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linux
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Package_manager