You Are Your Biggest Security Threat
By Bob Rankin
The biggest security threat to your PC and privacy – hits very close to home.–PC Pitstop
Most computer and Internet security articles focus on threats found ‘out there’ in the online sphere, or in the form of bad people with malevolent intentions. The danger is that they will get to you or your computer, and steal or damage. Most security measures focus on preventing such intrusions. But the greatest threat is not ‘out there.’ It is in you…
The Biggest Online Threat?
It IS you, in fact. You are human (no matter what your ex says), and have a human Mind (or enough of one to get by). Nothing is more capable of causing, or is more likely to cause you trouble. Yet the Mind is seldom the subject of information security articles. This is one of those rare reads.
“It ain’t what you don’t know that gets you into trouble,” wrote Mark Twain. “it’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so.” Almost every activity that a human performs, including most of what is supposed to be “knowledge work,” is done unconsciously; motions are gone through with blind faith that they will produce the same results they did last time. No attention is paid to what is right in front of you, in your hands.
The Biggest Threat?
That is why people click on links in emails that generally look like they’re from their bank; follow the instructions on what generally looks like their banks’ Web sites; and have their accounts emptied by bandits in Ukraine. Had you been paying attention, you would have noticed that your bank’s emails address you by name, not as “Dear Customer…” You would have remembered that your bank has told you, at the time you opened your account and many times since, that it will never ask you for your account password via email, and that you should always use a bookmark or type in the bank’s web address. But people do not pay attention.
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Excerpt shared with permission from Bob Rankin.
