Hackers have become very sophisticated over the past few
years. Not only the recent attack on Target was tremendous, but it was also
rather unusual because hackers
attacked the company
through their point of sale equipment and not online.
Dr. Vijay Anand, assistant professor in the department of
Engineering and Technology at Southeast Missouri State University, gave some
advices on how consumers can protect themselves against cybercrime. He urges
consumers to be more proactive regarding cybersecurity, even if it
is always difficult to predict where an attack will occur.
“It is always a good idea to check back on your account in a
timely manner. That’s the only recourse consumers have at this point, it’s to
regularly check on their account,” Anand said.
As far as credit or debit cards are concerned, consumers
should privilege banks who offer them cards with a chip in it, instead of only
the usual magnetic strip. The chip has a microprocessor which has more security
features and guarantees more secure transactions. It is better than the
magnetic strip, according to Anand, because the active chip can prevent certain
kinds of attacks.
Regarding the issue of identity theft, Anand suggests people
to do pretty much the same as for bank account attacks.
“The only recourse that you have against identity theft is
to check and monitor your credit report,” Anand said.
Individuals can also be more careful by not throwing away
mail containing sensitive personal information. Individuals should shred
potentially sensitive mail. Indeed, some attackers do dumpster diving which
consists in going over somebody’s trash in search of useful information about
that person. Also, Anand remind consumers that they should never answer an
email asking to give away private information such as your social security number.
If a bank or other entity needs it, they will not ask for it through email.
Those are called phishing attacks and are incredibly common.
Concerning internet
browsers, Anand said he would privilege Firefox and Google Chrome over
other browsers as he considers those two more secure. But there are other ways
to be careful when doing a transaction. He explained that people should make
sure the web link contains the “https” prefix instead of the usual “http.”
“If it is https then it is a secure transaction, there is
some authentification going on, so that is a secure connection that you have
with a server. But if you have a basic http connection, it’s not secure.”
Anand insisted on this point, making clear that this small
change can make a huge difference regarding to the security of the transaction.
“It the https sign is not there I would never put my
username and password into that account because I have no idea whether it is a
secure site or a non secure site,” Anand added.
It is difficult for small businesses to protect themselves
because cybersecurity
is expensive. What they can do, Anand advised, is to use platforms such as
Google Pay or PayPal because they are trustworthy sites with a huge security capacity. To him, it’s
definitely a better solution than any home built solution.
Hackers don’t really go after private individuals one at a
time. It would take too long.
“What they typically do is that they will go and attack the
database of a large corporation, which as information about millions of people,
so that value is much higher,” Anand said.
So even if the targets are still primarily big corporations,
one is never too careful and should follow some of those tips to make sure that
their online transactions remain safe.
