HYDERABAD: To help protect oneself from being a victim or even an unknowing accomplice to cyber crimes people must stop using pirated softwares which use crack codes for activation. This was the major takeaway from the seminar on Cyber Security at Federation of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FTAPCCI)on Wednesday.
“Most of the times the crack for the illegal software will have a worm encoded into it which opens up your system to outside vulnerabilities,” said Umesh Thota, founder of Authbase a cyber security firm in Hyderabad. Earlier this year in October Pakistani hackers had hacked into 50 Indian IT companies based out of Hyderabad. They had used ransomware to encrypt the files of the companies and demanded money in the form of Bitcoins in exchange for the decryption key.
“The hackers had done this using email attachments,” said Umesh. Once the user clicks on the attached file, the computer would request you to enable ‘macros.’ The link could be something as simple a copy of a resume, he added.
o protect oneself from potential harm, the public must consider using three different levels of computer protection. One could use a sand box, a fire wall and an anti-virus. People must ensure that three levels of protection they use are not of the same company.
“If you use the product of a single company, a single vulnerability in the product undermine all of your computer defences,” said Umesh. The sand box works as an interface between your system and the Internet and quits saving data once you quit the internet.