by Stuart Brown
Cyber security specialist
Last week (February 14) the Queen opened the new National Cyber Security Centre in London, part of a £2billion government investment in cyber security.
Is that enough to make us safe on the internet?
Does that protect our homes, our businesses, our suppliers, our friends and family every day? Does that make the government responsible for our personal cyber security?
Who’s responsible at work? The boss, director or the owner? Who’s responsible at home? The dog? Your ten-year-old?
The answer, of course, is you are, each and every one of us – every day on every device you use, manage or control that has access to the internet.
The sole responsibility lies in what we do with our digits – our fingers that press the buttons, or more recently our voice that issues commands to our phone, tablet, Amazon Echo gadget etc.
Connected to that voice or digit is your brain – the decision point to press that mouse button or issue the command to open that phishing email link and openly invite some stranger to silently take over your computer or phone without your knowledge at any time at their convenience not yours.
Collectively we all need to take internet security far more seriously as more and more devices like fridges, light bulbs, intelligent power sockets and more enter our homes and working lives – the so-called Internet of Things.
The more devices, the more paranoid we should be about online security and protecting our digital lives.
Over the coming months I will attempt to expand on the issues faced and what you can do to be more responsible with your digital security – discuss viruses, malware, phishing, ransomware and more and what steps we need to take to better protect ourselves.
