Using the internet to do research, writing an email, playing mobile devices and using the cloud technologies in daily life is an indispensable thing for anyone even young kids at anywhere. Internet has always been a benefit for us, we can’t live without internet but there are many threats that exist on the Internet. Understanding these threats and how to avoid them are critical skills. People nowadays don’t usually understand the threats of using internet and it is a big harm for them to not do any security to prevent hacks, lacking of their personal information and virus. Letting the users take a deeper look into some of the threats issues, and what to do can avoid them is an important issue. The term “threats” is defined as a thing likely to cause damage and the possibility of trouble, danger or ruin or as a potential risk of an asset’s loss of value. It is therefore important for readers to gain insights into this problem that anyone could have a chance facing in daily life. In this essay, the first aspect that will be discussed is on the threats that users faced on using the internet and writing an email, followed by the threats that might happen for using mobile devices and cloud technologies and finally the strategies might be used to prevent each of them from happening.
Firstly, the threats that users faced on using the internet and writing an email. Everyone uses internet every day, either using it for entertainment or work and it has become easier to communication and information sharing, but not all people will understand the cause of threats and the ways to prevent it. Some of the common Internet threats are Virus, it is a malware that is capable of activation and replication without being attached to a computer program, is usually attached to files for downloaded or thumb drives. Adware, it is a type of malware software that displays unwanted ads when a user is surfing the internet. The ads often redirect your searches to advertising websites and collect marketing-type data about you, behind your back, which is considered malicious. It is often included in many shareware or freeware downloads as a legitimate way of generating advertising revenues that help fund development. However, some websites are infected with malicious adware that is automatically downloaded to your computer. When this action has been completed, Trojans can be used. Besides online threats, some students also spend too much of time through the internet leading students to neglect their studies. If the movie has too much influences, even elderly people are likely to neglect some their important work. Students might lose concentrate on their studies because they spent too much time on internet. According to The Straits Time (2017), survey findings released in February on the impact of digital devices such as mobile phones, tablets, computers and video game consoles on people. Gadgets have become a key part of people’s lives in Singapore, as consumers spend most of their waking hours on digital devices for 12 hours 42 mins a day on average. Accounting for the most time spent on a gadget in a day on average is the mobile phone, at 3hr 12min. The top gadget people use here is also the smartphone, with 95 per cent saying so, and its effect on people is telling that almost 80 per cent of them check their smartphones when waking up in the morning or just before going to bed. As for E-mail, it allowed people to communicate with minimum of time. It is now possible to send a email to someone in any parts of the world through a simple e-mail address and the email is delivered in matter of seconds. Every companies are also using e-mail in business. However, e-mail have pros and cons such as threats. Spam emails are a huge issue, emails are mostly being syphoned into folders, also, worms usually make their way on to a computer via a malicious email attachment or USB stick. Once your computer has been infected by a worm virus, it will likely send itself to every email address logged in your system. To the receiver, your email will appear harmless, until they open it and are infected by the same worm. According to Krystle Gillietti(2018), Malware such as ransomware and cryptocurrency miners commonly enter inboxes as attachments and have the potential to cause serious problems if downloaded; however, another type of email attack is on the rise. This often malware-less threat is known as CEO Fraud, or Business Email Compromise (BEC), and it is becoming increasingly popular among today’s attackers. In 2017, the IC3 received 15,690 Business Email Compromise complaints with adjusted losses of over $675 million. From the above situation, people have to be more aware on how to prevent different virus to attack from malicious website or mails received. Malware-less attacks are particularly dangerous as they are tougher for both users and email security solutions to detect, due to the lack of any traditional phishing or attack indicators. Therefore, it is necessary to install firewall and anti-virus and have a daily check of your computer condition, as for students who couldn’t concentrate on their studies, children may not be mature enough to understand the effect caused on them, there is a need for parents and teachers to ensure that they inculcate the right behavior in children to ensure they use internet wisely and get the right information from internet.
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Secondly, the threats that might happen for using mobile devices and cloud technologies. Everyone uses mobile devices, we keep our important things inside our phone, it is an indispensable thing for everyone. We are experiencing threats every day, connecting to public wi-fi networks so that we will not exceed the data but connecting to unknown wi-fi might not be safe for us as it will leak out of our personal information. As for me, my threats for mobile device is that if someone has accidentally lost their phone which might lead to all personal information, photos and important notes gone and the thief trying to hack into their app store to change the password. The threats for them to hack into victims account and change their password and chat with the victim’s friend which leads to cheating their money and there is a possibility for them to call overseas and we will have to pay for a large amount of money for unauthorized calls and most importantly we bind our bank card in our phone for more convenient online shopping, the loss of your phone can just lead to them using up all your money. For cloud technologies, it is shared pools of configurable computer system resources and higher-level services that can be rapidly provisioned with minimal management effort, often over the Internet. Cloud computing relies on sharing of resources to achieve coherence and economies of scale, similar to a public utility. However, there is threats such as data breaches, it might be the primary objective of a targeted attack or simply the result of human error, application vulnerabilities or poor security practices. According to CSA (2018), It might involve any kind of information that was not intended for public release, including personal health information, financial information, personally identifiable information, trade secrets, and intellectual property. An organization’s cloud-based data may have value to different parties for different reasons. Besides that, the threats also include insufficient identity, credential and access management and data loss, as data stored in the cloud can be lost for reasons other than malicious attacks. According to CSA (2018), an accidental deletion by the cloud service provider, or a physical catastrophe such as a fire or earthquake, can lead to the permanent loss of customer data unless the provider or cloud consumer takes adequate measures to back up data, following best practices in business continuity and disaster recovery. Therefore, it is a must for everyone to ensure that they have keep their mobiles with them and not to put their information at only one platform, back up at another trustable platform.
Lastly, the strategies which are usable to prevent each of the threats from happening while using the internet are to keep your computer updated, keep the operating system, browser and security software up to date to clear worms. Also, always use a secure wireless connection if there is any, try to stop using public wi-fi network to risk yourself lacking out your information and privacy settings, Updating privacy settings on websites and services particularly on social media and search sites such as Facebook, Google, and Yahoo. For the use of email, it is better to check your email regularly during the day as it can be an effective way to keep your inbox at manageable levels and since malware and phishing scams are getting more sophisticated, try not to open emails that look suspicious or unusual, especially if they relate to your email, social media, financial services, or utility accounts. Delete those strange messages. When using your mobile, you have to be careful of the surroundings and online due to the app you downloaded, check if the app is safe which do not contain virus. For the security of using cloud technologies, try to avoid storing sensitive information in the cloud, if you have a choice you should opt for keeping your crucial information away from virtual world or use appropriate solutions. and read the user agreement clearly to find out how the cloud service storage works. If you are not sure what cloud storage to choose or any questions as for how another cloud service works, you can read the user agreement of the service you are planning to sign up for. There is no doubt it is difficult and boring but you really need to face those text volumes. The document which traditionally suffers from insufficient attention may contain essential information you are looking for and also, encryption is the best to protect your data as it the most easy and handy way is to zip files and encrypt them with a password.
In conclusion, this essay has covered some of the threats that will be caused when using internet, email, mobile device and technologies. It is without a doubt that research has shown the different ways that threats will happen from what we using in our daily life and the strategies to prevent all the threats from happening. It was not possible to cover every people in the country as some poverty country will not have this problem, but for us who uses technologies daily, all of us has the possibilities to face threats. It cannot be argued that people are usually not very concern about the result of not installing firewall, anti- virus. users who do not install anti-virus, it is the time for everyone to install the anti-virus to prevent malware attacks. Last but not least, a viable recommendation for everyone to install anti-virus software such as Norton and McAfee, this two are listed as the top best antivirus software in 2018 as the loss of your important data is difficult to retrieve and you might not know what your loss data is used for.
