A while ago, I talked about Why You Must Use a Strong Password on every one of your online profiles. Yet, there is more to crypto security than your password. The Internet was a dangerous place from day one, but the more technology becomes part of our lives, the more dangerous it is to be on the Internet.
Simultaneously with being more dangerous, the Internet becomes more and more necessary for a person to be able to live a normal life. It is almost unthinkable to buy something without first checking what people think of that product. And where do you go to find that information?
You search on Google. If you need any type of information, you are, again, turning to Google for the answer. In a word, in our time is almost completely impossible to live without the Internet. People are getting addicted to it. We are more and more moving to the era of the so-called Internet of Things.
Meaning almost every one of the devices we use daily will be connected to the Internet. We are talking about cars, refrigerators, TVs, thermometers, elevators, trains, train tracks, public transport vehicles, and every type of home appliance.
And while all this is good news for the entrepreneurial people that will find a way to take advantage of this newly emerging industry, for most of us, all this could become a major issue.
Most of our activities can and will be used, for advertisers to be able to specifically target their marketing efforts. And while it could be useful for the refrigerator to be able to signal you, when your cheese or beer is coming to an end, there are people out there, that aren’t interested in how much beer you drink in a week.
They want to know your bank account, your address, when you are at home, and when you are not.
But don’t panic, just yet! The good guys are also making their moves. Check out the top 4 trends in cyber security!
1. General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)
This one is so massive, that it deserves no other place than the first! Around the GDPR where made courses, ebooks, the lawyers around the world are making tons of money… and for a good reason.
The GDPR will be enforced from May 25, 2018.
If you are still not informed, you have to know that GDPR is a regulation that is explaining how companies should process, store and secure the personal data of EU citizens all around the world.
In other words, if you have personal information of just an EU citizen, if it is not stored and secured by the rules in the GDPR, you can and will be fined. Even if your business is NOT located in a European country. There are, of course, some exceptions. The countries in the politics which are traditionally against the EU may or may not oppose the fines. But this is a topic of other conversation.
The GDPR will be enforced on May 25 this year and you better be ready. The fines could be 4% of the total worldwide annual turnover of the preceding financial year, or up to 20 million euros.
The enforcement of the GDPR is a huge step forward to better protect EU residents because it provides a consistent set of regulations across borders. The rules in the GDPR will apply to businesses of all sizes. As mentioned the regulation applies all over the world. For a business to be finned is enough to not take care of the personal data of a single EU citizen.
The severe penalties for the business will make us at least a bit calmer when providing them with our personal information.
In the future, businesses will face severe penalties if data isn’t secured in compliance with regulations. This will have an inevitable impact on businesses and how they deal with security.
2. VPN
The more our privacy is threatened by criminals or governments, the better-educated Internet user will start using browsers like Tor.
But while by using Tor, you are making yourself protected from the government in almost every tutorial on how to use the browser you’ll be advised NOT to enter in your profiles, especially the ones that could lead to your identification. In other words, it is not recommended to enter your Facebook profile or read your email via Tor.
Yet there are ways to better protect yourself.
VPN – stands for Virtual Private Network.
If you remember the times when PCs were hardly connected to the Internet, you probably remember the struggle to start a LAN-based game. And you knew that no one outside of your home or the computer club, where the game stood the place, will be able to connect.
LAN stands for Local Area Network. Meaning exactly what you can expect. It is local. And years, before the Internet became more of a necessity instead of a luxury the only way for someone to put malware on your computer, was to have physical access to it. Or to one of the computers in the local network.
Once everyone had access to the Internet your computer is not so much of a secure place. That’s why the VPN is in rising popularity. You can have the benefits of a local network, but still be able to go to every website.
What I am saying is not if you have a VPN, you will be untouchable, and no one ever will be able to find you or breach your computer. Still, by using a VPN, you are taking a step in the direction of more secure use of the Internet.
3. IPv6
IP stands for Internet Protocol. Its function is to provide identification and location. IPv4 is being replaced by IPv6. This is done in order for more IP addresses to be made available, but there is more to it. Some very fundamental changes to the protocol are made. Some of those changes could be considered security policy.
IPv6 became a Draft Standard in December 1998 but did not formally become an Internet Standard until 14 July 2017.
Source: wikipedia.org
So, now that version 6 of the Internet Protocol is already a standard, more and more people will adopt it. And you better do that earlier, than later. But whether you rush for it or not, try to make it part of your security plans.
4. Encryption
Encryption gets so much attention in the last few months that even Google is pushing forward with it. Your SERP position will be affected if your website is not using encryption.
Browsers of all kinds are about to tell people that your website is “not secure” if they have to register to your website, and you don’t have an SSL certificate. And as you can imagine, having the browser telling your potential customers that your website is not secure can destroy years of hard work.
Thus, there is only one option for you, me, and every webmaster out there. Encryption. To encrypt the information that people are entering your website, you have to have an SSL certificate.
Read: Do I Need an SSL Certificate?
Conclusion
There is so much more to web security than a few trends. Even if they are the core of it for now. Even if you are up to date with the latest trends, there are things you should do to prevent yourself from becoming a victim of an online attack.
Keep yourself educated. The more you know about how exactly the Internet works, and the core of the attacks, the more ready you will be to prevent them, and even if they occur, you will be ready to get back to an older state of your website or PC. A state that is not infected.
Stay safe!