- Multiple companies in India are raising awareness about online safety and best practices to keep data secure on Safer Internet Day.
- Twitter has a new emoji, Instagram is organising roadshows and Google is asking users to do a quick security check-up.
- An OLX survey shows that users in India aren’t shy of sharing personal data with others — including card numbers and OTPs.
India has a large percentage of users who’re logging onto the internet for the first time. The internet presents a whole host of options and opportunities — however, the digital landscape is also getting more dangerous by the day.
Cybersecurity firm
SonicWall claims that cyber attacks are getting more targeted in 2020.
“Cybercriminals are honing their ability to design, author and deploy stealth-like attacks with increasing precision while growing their capabilities to evade detection by sandbox technology,” said SonicWall President and CEO Bill Conner.
On Safer Internet Day, a survey done by OLX shows that more than half of Indian internet users neglect basic cybersecurity safety practices. It points out that 52% of the respondents shared their numbers or personal addresses on public forums online.
Another 26% admitted to sharing their one-time passwords (OTPs) with others. The remaining 22% have shared bank account numbers, UPI pins, credit and credit card details.
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Indian companies like Swiggy are raising awareness among their customers on how to be responsible online. It warns users to be wary of portals outside of Swiggy publicising fake toll-free customer care numbers, suspicious links on social media sites, and proactive calls from unauthorised numbers asking for personal information.
Google is also doing its part by asking users to take a two-minute security checkup to strengthen their accounts on the Google Search homepage.
Facebook-owned Instagram has partnered up with Yuvaa — a youth media and insights company in India — to host roadshows in 20 cities and 50 colleges. The aim of the campaign is to initiate conversations with Generation Z to address issues like mental health, bullying and gender sensitivity online.
Twitter, on the other, is also trying to promote conversations — but on its own platform. It introduced a new emoji last year to get people talking about the importance of being safe online, which it is continuing with this year.
Even Microsoft, although not a social platform, has launched the ‘Digital Civility Challenge’. It asks users to pledge, “I embrace the challenge to be a leader in making the internet a better and safer place. I commit to do my part every day by living up to the four Digital Civility Challenge ideals.”
Cybercriminals are adapting along with users
Aside from users willingly sharing their information, cybercriminals are constantly transforming the way they attack as well. Cybersecurity firm SophosLabs points out that ransomware attacks are increasing and getting better at slipping past security measures.
“The creators of ransomware have a pretty good grasp of how security software works and adapt their attacks accordingly. Everything is designed to avoid detection while the malware encrypts as many documents as possible as quickly as possible and makes it hard, if not impossible, to recover the data,” said Mark Loman, director of engineering for threat mitigation technology at Sophos.
Dell’s
Global Data Protection Index showed a worrying trend of Indian companies monetising user data without having adequate security measures in place. Nearly half of the businesses in India monetise data compared to a global average of 36%. However, one-third have reported irreversible data loss.
The main reason cited by companies is the lack of adequate options, which leaves users with the impetus to be responsible for their own data.
See also:
Safer Internet Day: Here are the things that may be compromising your internet safety
