What you have to know about Cyber Security- Basic level-

How much of your business or personal information do you keep on your computer or internet network? Remember that internet is a public platform where all your information can be display and easily find; your job, family, friends, past, hobbies...providing enough information to be a potential victim of a virtual or even physical attack.

Cyber security implies protecting that info by preventing, detecting and responding to attacks. No one is excluded from big companies to normal persons. Have you heard the case where hacker leaks data about the finances of Latvian banks and state-owned firms to Latvian TV or maybe more familiar for you “a hacker had stolen my credit card information and now I have been charged with unauthorized purchases”.

Well, to minimize the risk, the best defense is to be aware of all the threats, recognize how prevent, but first know some basic terms:

• Hacker, attacker or intruder: It is common used is to describe computer criminals, an expert at a particular programming language who accesses a computer system without authorization.
• Malware: is software designed to infiltrate a computer system without the owner's informed consent.
• Spam: Unsolicited e-mail, sent indiscriminately to multiple mailing lists, advertising everything from pornography and phoney charity scams to dodgy get-rich-quick schemes and free websites.
• DoS: Denial of Service
• Trojan Horse: A program that appears to be legitimate but is designed to have destructive effects, as to data residing in the computer onto which the program was loaded.
• Virus: Reproduces itself by attaching to other executable files.
• Worm: Self-reproducing program. It creates copies of itself. Worms that spread using e-mail address books are often called viruses.
• Phishing: is the criminally fraudulent process of attempting to acquire sensitive information such as usernames, passwords and credit card details.

Our style of life is integrated to new technologies and deeply with internet, is part of us. The first step is to understand the risks implied, recognize the basic terms and what to do. As worldwide citizen we should collaborate with more people to decrease the virtual attacks to make internet a safer network to share and exchange information.