How to stay safe in the digital environment?
(Baonghean.vn) - Any living environment is not safe. That is the nature of life. We have lived in the real world for tens of thousands of years, the institutions, laws, and state apparatus have been perfected for thousands of years but there are still risks, there is still not absolute safety, there is still theft and murder.
Digital transformation creates a new living space, called cyberspace or digital environment. Life has been moving into the digital environment faster than the legal system and law enforcement apparatus, and therefore, the risks are not small. But fortunately, the whole world is facing these challenges, countries are perfecting the legal system in the digital environment. We can learn. For example, on personal data protection, Europe has issued laws and many countries consider them as standards; large social networks such as Facebook, Twitter, Google have also been managed by countries through laws on digital markets and services. Vietnam is also learning to perfect the institutions and apparatus in the digital environment.
But we will always have to face risks in the digital environment. In addition to the law, each of us must equip ourselves with digital skills to live safely in the digital environment. Accidents and cyber security incidents will still happen, but that is also the way to make the digital environment safer. Because there can be no risk of zero, the approach will be to manage risks, minimize risks, and when risks occur, the ability to recover is the most important.
Vietnam will have to prosper in cyberspace, therefore, Vietnam must become a cyber security power to protect its prosperity in cyberspace. A cyber security power is like a military power in the real world.
Every citizen has the awareness to protect themselves in the digital environment as they protect themselves in the real environment, protect their intangible assets, such as personal information, as they protect other tangible assets. The smartphone has now become an inseparable object for many people and therefore is the weakest point.
How did smartphones become spies?
Smartphones are loaded with features, including cameras, microphones, location tracking, wireless connectivity, and more. Unfortunately, privacy and security are not top of mind for most manufacturers, who are more interested in convenience and price to compete.
All of this has turned smartphones into incredibly ideal devices for tracking, eavesdropping, getting location, private data, and even impersonating other phones to text.
If someone has control of your smartphone, they probably know more about you than you do.
How do hackers break into smartphones?
There are many ways, from easy to difficult, used by hackers. The easiest, does not require technological level, but only requires tricks to deceive, fake. Hackers can collect public information on the network, such as social networks, the Internet, to build fraudulent content with reliable information for each individual, often hitting each individual's personal desires.
At a more advanced level, hackers can create software, which can be malware, or malware disguised as a normal application, such as a movie or music player application, to lure users into installing and using it.
At a more advanced level, professional hackers attack by exploiting vulnerabilities and weaknesses of phones or legitimate applications to gain entry.
What are the signs that your smartphone has been “hacked”?
The phone often gets hot even when not in use, the phone's battery is "drained" frequently or its lifespan is reduced even though the application is rarely used, because malicious software that runs in the background will consume phone resources to scan the device and transmit information back to the hacker's control server.
The phone suddenly hangs or freezes frequently, or the application often crashes unexpectedly, or sometimes the phone even restarts. This could be due to malware overloading resources or conflicting with other applications.
Monthly data usage is higher than needed or suddenly increases, resulting in high data charges.
This could be due to data from the machine being transferred to the hacker's control server via a network connection.
Strange application suddenly appeared, not installed by me, most likely this is malware or spyware.
Why is cyber security as simple as washing your hands with soap?
With just the right awareness and habits, each person can protect themselves, limiting up to 80% of the risks and dangers. The remaining 20% can only be threatened by professional attackers who spend a lot of resources.
Each person should understand the applications that they have installed on their smartphone as their own body. Smartphones allow users to control and grant appropriate permissions to each application according to their functional needs. Delete the applications that you do not use, and grant permissions to the applications you need in a reasonable way. For example, the "Perpetual Calendar" application does not need access to your Contacts or Location, so there is no need to grant this application that permission.
Only install apps from official stores, for iPhones it is the Apple Store and for Android phones it is the Google Play Store. Minimize the installation of unknown applications.
Set up strong passwords when using your phone and applications, and always update the latest versions of your operating system and applications.
Install security applications on your smartphone, like adding a lock to your property. Vietnam has very good applications, such as smartphone security software from BKAV, CMC or Viettel.
Who to ask if there is a problem?
Please contact the National Cyber Security Monitoring Center, Information Security Department of the Ministry of Information and Communications for advice and support.
Online address for consultation and support for people at: https://khonggianmang.vn/