Tag Archive for: ‘Hackproof’

Techie Tips: Hack-proof your family

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In this, my first column, I want to take a moment to talk about keeping our families safe.

When I was coming up, my parents had the “Stranger Danger” talk with me. Our kids are born into the world as digital natives, and just like in the “real” world, they need to understand the dangers the digital world can pose.

We’re in a unique place as a society, where even our youngest members are virtually fluent, yet potentially vulnerable to threats they barely comprehend.

The cybersecurity landscape has radically evolved over the last decade. It’s no longer confined to IT departments or specialist firms. Today, it stands at the threshold of every household. Our family homes are no longer just physical structures, they extend into the digital realm.

We speak in hushed tones about cyber threats like ransomware, data breaches, and identity theft. They seem abstract, distant, and more applicable to high-profile corporations than suburban households. But as our lives become more intertwined with digital technologies, the line blurs. Social media profiles, online banking, cloud storage, virtual classrooms—all these facets of our digitized lives contain personal information that could be exploited if left unprotected.

Families must understand that the internet, much like any public space, has its share of threats and risks. Parents would not let their children roam unsupervised in a city they’ve just moved to. Likewise, the same level of caution should be exercised online.

But how can families fortify their digital homes? First and foremost, education is key. Cybersecurity is not a labyrinthine concept reserved for tech aficionados—it is a practice that needs to be adopted by all users.  Simple, crystal-clear ground rules need to be set for our children to keep them S.A.F.E.

S.A.F.E. is a great acronym for cybersecurity.  Let’s go through it together!

Secure your information 

Make sure that you leverage two-factor authentication (2FA) on your digital services. 2FA is something you have (like a cell phone with a code) and something you know (like a password.) This approach will keep your accounts much more secure.

Avoid suspicious links or emails

Phishing attempts and social…

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Make your home hack-proof this summer

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Hybrid working, where we work both from an office and from our homes, brings some brilliant benefits, such as the flexibility to choose where we work, but it also brings some risks.

When working in an office, many of us have access to professional and comprehensive security technology that is set up and maintained by an IT department or team. However, when working from home we don’t have that luxury, and when dealing with important and sensitive data for work, you can’t just rely on the built-in virus protection of your operating system to keep you safe.

The good news is that there are some easy ways to boost the security of your home office and ensure there’s no danger of hackers getting easy access to your data, so read on for simple steps to keep you and your work protected.

Credit cards on a laptop's keyboard

(Image credit: Virrage Images / Shutterstock)

1. Keep your identity secure

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Another way to protect voting rights: Hack-proof our elections

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In his State of the Union address, President Joe Biden made a pitch once again for his failed voting reform bill, the “Freedom to Vote Act.” But there was a conspicuous lack of attention on what’s arguably the most serious issue pertaining to elections: Protection against foreign cybersecurity threats.

From the Colonial Pipeline ransomware attack to the SolarWinds hack, we have seen time and again that malicious cyber interference is a clear and present danger to our economic security. Increasingly, it’s also a danger to our election security.

In recent years, leading computer scientists and network security experts have found real vulnerabilities in election technology that could allow even lower-tier hackers to pose threats. As this technology ages, dozens of states are now in dire need of new equipment and support for managing security issues. Public reports from the Director of National Intelligence and other cybersecurity experts suggest that threats could come from Russia, Iran, China or North Korea, as well as non-state actors with radical agendas.

But all is not lost.

There is growing agreement across the political spectrum on how to improve election security: voter-verified paper ballots that create permanent, physical records of votes; risk-limiting audits that use robust statistical analysis to ensure accurate counts and ample, consistent funding for state and local election administrators in order to carry out trustworthy elections for years to come. There is also support for even stronger protection from hackers and foreign interference through improved federal oversight of voting machine vendors and by keeping voting and tabulation infrastructure off the internet.

None of these reforms create any partisan advantages, only increased confidence in the security in our elections. Perhaps that is why we have seen repeated bipartisan support for many of these ideas, from the PAPER Act of 2017 to the Secure Elections Act of 2018 to the Election Security Act of 2019. But while lawmakers have passed some meaningful funding support in recent years, further action is needed.

This is why I recently…

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America Has to Make High-Tech Medicine Hack-Proof

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The hack that shut down the Colonial Pipeline has most Americans worried about threats to the nation’s computer network. According to a recent survey by Rasmussen Reports, 85 percent of Americans are at least “somewhat concerned” about the safety of the nation’s computer infrastructure.



a person sitting on a bed: A registered nurse cares for COVID-19 patients in a makeshift ICU at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center on January 21, 2021, in Torrance, California.

© Mario Tama/Getty Images
A registered nurse cares for COVID-19 patients in a makeshift ICU at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center on January 21, 2021, in Torrance, California.

Their concerns are not idle ones—they exist across vital sectors of the economy. Over the last decade, the health care industry has become increasingly vulnerable to ransomware attacks like the one we’ve just been through in the energy sector. Experts have been raising the alarm but thus far their warning cries have not received the attention they deserve.

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That needs to change. Policymakers need to pay attention as these kinds of attacks become more frequent and more expensive. According to a study conducted by Comparitech, in 2020 alone 92 individual ransomware attacks occurred that cost an estimated $20 billion and affected over 600 separate clinics, hospitals and organizations and more than 18 million patient records.

Health care systems rely more and more on devices that use network-integrated software components. These machines—MRI machines, CT scanners and the like—are a vital part of 21st century health care. We cannot do without them so we must take steps to ensure they cannot be hacked. Unfortunately, despite growing vulnerabilities, hospitals and other providers are allowing cost concerns to create a serious security gap that could further jeopardize the integrity of certain medical devices, as well as health systems more broadly: third-party medical device servicing activities.

Online infrastructure must be protected from hackers who can cause life-saving technologies to crash with the push of a button. These technologies are essential to diagnostic and therapeutic services and for patient care. People literally cannot live without them yet it’s not clear they are being protected, especially when they need to be repaired. Problematically, these vulnerabilities are being studied just as…

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