Technology has brought incredible advantages to our lives and living standards. Presence of people on online sites, whether it’s social media accounts, online marketing, or internet trends is increasing in every second. People are using the internet as an intermediary to share their work, personal data and hobbies. Social media channels gained popularity at the same time technology advances. Nowadays, most people use these platforms daily to freely express any thought, feeling, idea, and more.  However, at the same time they need to be aware that they must not be neglecting the security terms and conditions in order to avoid risk of data loss. Unfortunately, they have forgotten two major parts of cyber security, data protection and privacy, while using their favorite smart devices.  This has made it easy for hackers to damage our lives and steal personal data.

Cyber security is the one of the most essential and important features for organizational success. Cyber Security deals with prevention of crimes online, and is closely liked to information security, which deals with the preservation of data.  Cyber criminals are a great threat to corporate culture. Lack of awareness and laziness are two of the biggest factors that have caused gigantic data losses at companies like Target, Walmart, and more. There are some easy to do thing in which a person can actually participate towards cyber security.

Password: One must have a strong enough password as it represents your identity in surfing  emails , shopping sites, social media accounts and banking etc. You must have a policy of your own to verify whether your password is hack able or not. According to surveys and facts 73% of the people uses common passwords which makes cyber crime a bit easier for criminals. It is better to go through Strong password guidelines before setting a new password.

Things to avoid:

• Never disclose usernames and passwords to third parties
• Never write your username or passwords on paper
• Update your account password at least every 6 months
• Do not use passwords that have been used in the past
• Never provide credentials when requested through email

Organizations need to motivate and teach people the importance of cyber security continuing education, whether in  the form of awareness training programs, or something else. Introducing cyber security at the moment is left to each organization individually, while it may be better off left to the government.

Data protection and data privacy is another essential for keeping the important data from malicious attacks and maintaining the confidentiality, integrity & availability of the personal data. It is the process of handling the data in the market sector to prevent financial loss and credibility. January 28 is celebrated as Data Privacy day in an attempt to make people familiar with the concept and to make them realize its importance in modern society.

Google’s recent announcement on GDPR is a clear example of this.  GDPR is regulation affecting the EU that controls how organizations protect the data and privacy of the people who use their products and services.  Very strict guidelines were just put in place, and the penalties for going astray are quite large.