Tools for protected information

On March 11, the Continuing Education Department of the University of Azuay -in conjunction with the Production Engineering career- held a talk on the importance of protecting the information of individuals and organizations, by Paúl Esteban Crespo, teacher and researcher at the University of Azuay.

The main axis of the presentation was focused on providing tools that allow facing and mitigating cyber attacks, fraud and extortion, both to ordinary people and organizations.

Crespo explained how important it is to protect the information that we store in technological devices and that we share through social networks.

Due to the advancement of technology, we constantly interact with various technological devices in which we share personal data, such as location, our contact book, among others, which, if we do not secure them well, can make us vulnerable to threats such as extortion.

In this context, Crespo assures that when talking about technology, one should also talk about security.

For that reason, it shares three basic principles of computer security, as a basis for the protection of our computer data:

1st principle: The intruder will try to make any device in a system that makes the attack easier, this attack will be at its weak point.

This means that if a person has the same password on all their devices, or a very simple password, it will be a weak point where the hacker can easily access the information.       

2nd principle: Data should be protected only until it loses value. It is important to store only useful data.

3rd principle: The control measures that are implemented must be effective, efficient, easy to use and appropriate to the environment. The passwords that are going to be used in technological devices should consist of a mixture of uppercase, lowercase and special characters, as this makes it more difficult to decipher in the case of a cyber attack.

On the other hand, Crespo mentioned that information is power and that at the business level it is known because it is critical, which is essential for the operation of a company; it is valuable and sensitive, which should only be known to authorized persons.

Latent threats will be constant, but it is necessary to know and act on them.

That is why it is important to download applications with a clear privacy policy, limit access permissions to applications that require the use of the camera or microphone, also, deactivate the location of the device in use and finally, avoid sharing sensitive information over networks. social.

UDA Correspondent