Santa is coming to town, and he’s packing a white hat
this Christmas as he brings good tidings, gifts and advice for people to stay cybersafe
over the holidays.
In a modern world where Christmas gifts often consist of
smartphones, tablets and assorted connected gadgets, Santa’s white hat shows
the recipients they can be safe despite the proliferation of online dangers. The
color shows that the hacker behind the keyboard is a benevolent one, and not a
nasty “black hat” hacker. And that makes the difference between a world in
which people safely enjoy their devices and one in which their private data is splattered
all over the Internet.
Cybersecurity is a positive word, but we usually hear
about it in not-so-happy circumstances. Maybe someone hacked our Instagram
account or some hacker leaked emails and passwords from our favorite fitness
app. Suddenly, the word cybersecurity is thrown around, along with the term hacker,
accompanied by images showing people in hoodies hunched over a keyboard in the
dark.
White hat hackers,
though, investigate vulnerabilities and uncover problems with software and
hardware. They report their findings and try to make the world safer, with no
concern for material gains.
Black hat hackers
are on the other side of the law. They look to compromise companies and social
media accounts to steal data, install ransomware, launch phishing campaigns,
and much more. Profit by any means is their mantra.
In the middle come the grey hat hackers, and they only want to show that it can be done.
They usually surf around the net, trying to find holes in critical
infrastructures and companies, and sometimes they might even ask for money in
return for disclosing their penetration methods.
The shopping
season and the white hat Santa
In the cybersecurity world, Santa’s hat can only be
white, especially if we consider that his arrival coincides with the busiest
shopping season of the year.
And when people find online offers that seem too good to
be true, they sometimes throw security out the window. Adults forget that they
shouldn’t open emails from unknown senders, they shouldn’t provide personal
information over the Internet, and they really shouldn’t click on ads with
products offered for ridiculously low prices.
The Christmas shopping season is a black hat hacker’s
favorite. But they can be foiled by following a few simple rules. And by
wearing a white hat so we know you’re in the right corner.
– Protect
against unknown threats by installing a security solution that anticipates
problems, such as ransomware and other issues, in real time
– Make sure your
data is secure from intrusions
– Use a
specially designed Internet browser that ensures your online payments are
completely safe
– Store your
personal or sensitive files in specially protected environments where no
malware has access
– Always know
where your devices are and find them with ease if they are ever misplaced or
stolen.
If you want a solution that has everything, you should
really take a look at Bitdefender
Total Security, which covers all of the above, and a lot more.