This technical blog is my own collection of notes , articles , implementations and interpretation of referred topics in coding, programming, data analytics , data science , data warehousing , Cloud Applications and Artificial Intelligence . Feel free to explore my blog and articles for reference and downloads . Do subscribe , like , share and comment ---- Vivek Dash
Friday, June 11, 2021
Thursday, April 15, 2021
Tech Commandments for a safer digital life - 5 principles to adhere to when using Internet
Tech Commandments for a safer digital life
* Technology has become a mammoth sized factor in our daily
lives and to top it all , Technology is always on the change which means that
one should always stay vigil of the changes happening around us as many
perpetrators and miscreants are on the lookout for finding new ways to
infiltrate into the loopholes that we set knowingly or unknowingly which leads
them directly in hold of sensitive information which can lead to a big
devastation if left unguarded and unprotected
* Some experts from leading security firms assert that one
should always remember that any piece of our identity that we post online could
eventually be used by fraudsters and hijackers / hackers to pervade into our
online accounts for which one needs to keep oneself and connected members safe
when online . These days bots ( trackers) can track any account and collect account
information at any point of time
* Therefore in order to keep oneself on the guard and stay safe
, some of the commandments that one needs to adhere to all the time are the
following :
1) One should not overshare personal info
As many of us use high ended camera phones with very high or unlimited
storage capacity , one gets into a clicking mode and becomes a self-proclaimed cameraman
/ photographer . But these days thanks to highly developed AI programs which
can take even pictures as input parameters and retrieve all relevant
information from the photo , one should stay vigil about the photos that one
clicks , location , people in that photo , context and backdrop for that photo and
several other factors before one gets into clicking mode to showcase one's photography
skills
2) One should not use Weak and Easy to crack
passwords
We all have a tendency to associate easy passwords which are
small and easy to remember for all of our accounts as we normally want to skip
ahead of all the mental work of recalling big and complex things whenever we
want to get into our accounts .. be it social media accounts , bank accounts ,
insurance accounts
(and Swiss Bank Deposit accounts too .. ) . As mentioned , these
days tracker bots can track all the gateways of access that an individual
leaves upon their online pathways , so unrecognised and unregulated access into
our trails can beonline pathways , so unrecognised and unregulated access into
our trails can be
discovered by bots and provide the information to the collecting
agency which is on the lookout of such paths which could be exploited . Many
such agencies pass on these trail paths to hackers to peek into and steal out
money / documents .. anything precious to them (remember .. "precious" of LOTR , one can turn into
Gollum for such "precious" things ) . Therefore , always make use of stronger and lengthier
passwords which is one's somewhat safety check for stopping unwanted and
malicious intrusion . Many people make use of password managers who make use of
multiple accounts , but this is also vulnerable as these are stored in the form
of either xml , json objects in the form of cookies which could be again
collected from the browser plugins that one uses on a regular basis . Thats why
, one should also try disconnecting from cookie storage from browser when one
closes the session . And thus , the best thing to do is to note down all the
important passwords over a piece of paper and keep them at a safe storage space
.
3) One should use Multi-factor authentication or
two-step verification
These days password comprehension can be done is so different
forms by hackers that , if someone wants to any way hack into some account ,
then they will eventually get into the account and that too using several tools
. Thats why most of the security experts recommend that one should make use of
multifactor authentication (two-factor , three-factor etc) in order to access a
given account which involves a user's verification before logging into account
using a system of OTP over phone and authenticator apps that send temporary
always changing codes that ensure that the user who is using the account is the
real one and not a dummy or someone else
4) One should not share data about friends and
Contacts
This comes as a completely new method of data siphoning which
occurs when someone accepts any permissions to any app or software over the
phone . This makes the app-owner a party to the shared information as requested
by the app within the permission page of the application . Therefore, one thing
that one needs to keep in mind is to keep a check over the permission page of
the
applications that one installs .Best is .. one should try to
limitise one's wants , keep few applications and software over one's phone and
do not install those software that require a lot of permissions to be accepted
before making use of the software .
5) One should always stay vigilant and skeptical
These days all the security experts accept the one rule of thumb
for all security practices -- "
Trust No One in this Greed Infested World" . Whenever you recieve any
call ,message , email soliciting any personal information .. then do not trust
any of message , email soliciting any personal information .. then do not trust
any of the mails . This could be a phishing attack from someone who wants to
profit out of undoubting people who out of trust and foolishness get entrapped
in their untrustworthy traps , thereby losing security over their devices and
mediums .Fraudsters nowadays can embed malware over legitimate looking emails
within hyperlinks which once clicked could install unsuspecting software over
your system all without anyone's coming to know of such a background activity
running on your system . Therefore, whenever any suspicion occurs , always opt
out of such apps , softwares , emails , anything (sigh ... wish I had known
these earlier )
These days I personally feel .. the days of Nokia 1100 and Nokia
1600 , movies without real-looking CGI , games like Tetris and Mario were the
best .
Tuesday, April 13, 2021
Future Shock of Technology - Cyber Threats on the Rise
Future Shock of Technology - Threats on Rise
* India is on a high alert after
several cyber attacks have jeopardised the operations of major business houses
and market establishments in the aftermath of UpStock's data theft
* One of the articles in a major newspaper circulated in India states that “With conventional weapons of mass destruction having reached frightening proportions, incentivisation of cyber warfare has become a daily news affair which requires a few resources and could be carried out discretely "
* So what is Cyber-Warfare.. " Cyber-Warfare by its very nature is well suited for grey-zone warfare where offensive activities are carried out below the thresholdof all out war and assymmetric attacks " . So all of those who do not have a great idea of this can relate to those scenes in hi-fi sci-fi movies over where Hackers launch their malicious automated code at targeted companies / individuals / institutions in order to either usurp classified data or usurp money in order to jolt the financial system of targeted entity or launch a series of malicious code which would infiltrate into their database and throw the complex database system out of order in order to de-stabilize the system or corrupt the system as these days most of the organisations have their secured systems connected to the world wide web and not all have secure and robust tech to deal with a cyber invasive attack of a gigantic to deal with a cyber invasive attack of a gigantic proportion until and unless the organisations that keep vigil let go off their vigilance and purport themselves as a party involved in it .
* It is mentioned and also needs mentioning that these could be classified as a type of threat from both China-Pakistan axis or single entities .
* The Union Home Ministry recently informed the Parliament that cyberattacks have risen nearly 300% during the last year amidst the growing Covid Pandemic
* Additionally, the Union Power and Resources Ministry of the GoI has admitted that state sponsored Chinese hacker groups have tried targeting India's critical power infrastructure . One such group whichhas surfaced called as "Red Echo" was behind the Mumbai power outage last year
* The article has cited its apprehensions and urges the netizens to imagine the chaos that could be caused if by chance a Chinese or Pakistani cyber strike on an Indian nuclear facility happens in future . In such a scenario , the country should cultivate both "defensive and offensive" cyberwarfare capabilities . Chief of Defense Services Mr Bipin Rawat recently revealed that the country is taking steps to counter China's cyber warfare through risk mitigation strategies , building firewalls and recovery systems and integrating the firewalls and recovery systems and integrating the three services cybersecurity resources . But it is touted that India is still way behind China in Cyber Crimes and Offences . And in order to bridge the difference, GoI (Govt of India)has to work in close range with other higher powers like USA and Russia in order to quickly upgrade their cyber tech . The article in its closing points mentions that , this being the need of the hour is a major arena where the Quad nations need to coordinate .