1 minute read
to fighting cybercrime
Cybercrime is big business, thanks to technical advancement and interconnectivity creating more opportunities for cybercriminals. This regular column will explore various aspects of cybercrime in an easy to understand manner, to help everyone become more cyber safe.
COLUMN
Collaboration is the key to fighting cybercrime
Cybercrime is big business. Perpetrators range from lone opportunists, hacktivists, cyber stalkers and solo deviants to loosely established decentralised groups, people involved in procuring and selling child exploitation/abuse material, nation state sponsored disruption and espionage specialists and members of large criminal enterprises.
You do not have to be a tech whiz to be part of the fight against cybercrime, you just need to ensure you are doing what you can to protect your accounts. This means knowing where to go for help, keeping any children under your guardianship aware of basic online safety, and being willing to share with others accurate (non-sensationalised) information on cybercrime you have seen, or have been the victim of.
How do these activities contribute to the fight against cybercrime? If you have received a scam message or email and alert your family to it and they then alert people they know, the knowledge on staying alert for this fraud will be spread exponentially via peer groups.
If you are a cybersecurity professional, ascertain how your workplace can collaborate with others to support sharing of indicators of compromise. Be active in your community, via social media or in person, in supporting people to be safer online.
Here are some things we can all do to harden ourselves against cybercrime.
• Stay aware of cyber safety messaging and know where to go for help. • If you are a parent or guardian of an underage person, keep them informed on how to stay safe online and keep an open dialogue with them so they feel safe sharing concerns with you. • Use multifactor authentication where it is provided. • Turn on automatic software updates where possible. • Think before you click or respond to requests for sensitive information. • Share cybersecurity information with others.
To be effective in the fight against cybercrime and protect ourselves, our families, our friends and our workplaces, communities and nations, we all need to work together. Collaboration is the key to fighting cybercrime.
www.demystifycyber.com.au
