Maria Soriano

CUIN 6320
Final project #2
4/26/2019
Cyber Security

Fraud Protection

Most people will agree that technology is one of the greatest things that had happened in

the world of communication in our era. The majority of people enjoy having their lives on a

small screen and push of a button in their hands; I am just as guilty as anyone else. I work, study,

make payments, communicate with family and friends and all this is taken place online. I have to

admit that this is an awesome thing to do. I do not have to make a line anywhere to pay my bills,

neither do I have to go to a bank to check my balance, or to do a deposit into my personal or

work account. All these steps I can just do it directly online. Moreover, many employers have

come out with the brilliant idea of going paperless in order to pay their employees, this aids the

employer by saving time and money. Direct deposit to me, is the best thing had happened in the

banking industry. I personally think this is an awesome idea since I do not have to wait to receive

a paycheck, or travel to the bank and get my money. Direct deposit is an electronic payment

from the bank account to another, likewise when you send payments electronically transfer to the

money into the invoice number or bank account. However, all these digital transformation and

security go together. As the technology advance cybersecurity becomes more challenging

because there are more devices, and attackers are becoming more innovative as well. Therefore,

we the users need to approach multiple layers of protection and understand and comply with

basic data security principles.

First of all, in order to enjoy the technological’ benefits, we need to learn how to protect

ourselves from any attempted cyber attacks. We need to learn how to protect our devices such as
computers, smartphones, tablets, and routers. Although there are very well known technologies

available to protect our devices such as malware protection, antivirus software, and email

security solution, it is not enough. In fact, there are cyberdefense programs working to protect

the connected world from identity theft, extortions, and the loss of important data. As an

individual level, we still need to learn the essentials to keep our society functioning.

There is a compiled list of things as users should be applying when using the internet.

“Innocent use of the internet could lead to potentially damaging results” ( Hughes, T 2008).

Although we probably heard it already many times we need to practice it. Applying a strong

password with a mix of characters that hackers cannot detect,and do not use it for many sites. We

need to take our security very seriously. A strong password protects us from identity theft and

financial fraud. Let me just say, that hackers, cyber criminals love text messaging as much as we

doI. I personally have a friend who received a text message from her “phone service provider”

suggesting to click a link to make her phone bill payment since they claimed they were going to

terminate her service due to past due date payment. As any naive person, she clicked the link and

sent the payment , but a few minutes later she received another text saying that the payment did

not go through and requested another click; she click it again....payment. As we can probably

imagine by now; sadly, these criminals cleared my coworker bank account. similar situations

happen through emails. I constantly received emails requesting money from someone who

alleged to be stuck in India or somewhere in the world. All these games can cost us a lot of

suffering and money if we are not aware of or we are not careful. Cyber Criminals have created a

system in such a way to take your money with a snap of a finger they can take hold of your

whole life.
 Second of all, having a computer can make our jobs easier and faster. We can use

computers for business communication purposes, to store and calculate massive data, or to write

important documents. Computers contain enormous storage that can store a large amount of

delicate information. They are one of the major reason people should not leave their devices

unattended. Leaving your computer in the car or unlocked can bring us serious consequences.

“Intruders have stolen confidential information, altered or destroyed data files, and interrupted

computer operations”( Hamilton, M 1993). Most people would not think that this could never

happen to them, but we all have to be responsible for our devices that contain such as precious

information. Especially if your employer had trusted you with sensitive information. “The

information stored in computers is often a company's most valuable asset” (Hamilton, M

1993).We definitely do not know what could be in other people’s minds. Leaving our computers

unattended or unlocked can be an open door to a criminal’s and create access to everything we

own or have. Hackers and cybercriminals are professionals that can steal our financial security

codes, intellectual property, or worse.

Moreover, although there are numerous social media sites and people participates and

multiple social media platforms we need to be extremely careful with what we share and who we

share it with. There are many reasons why people share things on social media. For most people

spending their time on social media websites can seem like a dream enjoying and reading others

people’s post and pictures, but for criminals is just an opportunity to keep them updated on the

things we are interested in, to alert them on what we are doing to figure a new ways to scam or

create a new methods to execute criminal acts. The truth is that social media has been an

amazing thing in the world of communication, but it does have a dark side. Hackers and

cybercriminals can find a way to seduce you into thinking that you can have a friendly
relationship with real people. Many people tend to have a strong urge to use social media and

cause them to be blind to the dangers, people should monitor their media accounts and restrain

from trusting any heartwarming instant messages from strangers because in most cases they can

easily track our location and place us on dangerous situations. There have been instances where

someone from the other side of the world can call your local police department and claim a

horrific crime has taken place and you are the culprit.

Lastly, I can only imagine if my laptop get stolen, my hard disk fails, or if I am working

on a project and out of the sudden my computer become infected with a ransomware. I will

probably be freaking out. This is not fun or pleasant experience. However, there are plenty

options to backup your data and be safe. I personally like to use a USB when I am working on a

major projects just to be on the safe side. However, as the technology had advanced, there have

come out a lot more options to choose to storage data such as clouds storage because this can be

done automatically with a certain amount of space free. There are plenty of third party cloud

storage options around. I am one of the biggest fan of google drive and dropbox, but there are

others available. I recently discover the existence of NAS device which is a server dedicated to

save data and it can operate either wired or wirelessly depending on the drive of your computer.

Our lives and experiences had changed thanks to the World Wide Web. It is the best

communication tool we have in our times, but if we do not learn how to use it and get protection

for it we could be under a dangerous umbrella. We need to take a serious precautions to protect

our computers health that could potentially result in our piece of mind by just following the

simple steps to avoid electronic vandalism.

 References

Hu, H., Myers, S., Colizza, V., Vespignani, A., & Parisi, G. (2009). WiFi Networks and Malware

Epidemiology. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of

America,106(5), 1318-1323. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org.ezproxy.lib.uh.edu/stable/40272375

Van Horn, R. (2003). Prudent Computing. The Phi Delta Kappan,85(3), 183-250. Retrieved from

http://www.jstor.org.ezproxy.lib.uh.edu/stable/20441531

HAMILTON, M. (1993). The dark side of the computer age: Protecting a client company's precious

asset: Information. Business Law Today, 3(2), 50-53. Retrieved from

http://www.jstor.org.ezproxy.lib.uh.edu/stable/23288059

Hughes, T. (2008). A Report on Safe Use of the Internet: Some of the Most Common Risks.

Hispania, 91(2), 408-411. doi:10.2307/20063724

Denning, P. (1990). The Science of Computing: Stopping Computer Crimes. American Scientist,

78(1), 10-12. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org.ezproxy.lib.uh.edu/stable/29773857