Cybersecurity concerns have existed since well about the time when the internet matured. However, it was almost like they were left to fester and grow before companies started giving any notice to them.
It could be argued that this is a result of a lack of knowledge, but we seriously doubt that. Motivation, maybe, but not knowledge.
Now that these companies know to what extent cyber breaches can cripple their customers and users, though, they have started making moves towards keeping them in check.
Here are some of the most laudable ones that came out of this decade:
Cookie Control
The cookie project, like many other things, started with extremely good intentions.
The developers thought it would be nice for a website to remember settings you chose the last time you visited so users can have a personalized experience whenever they come back.
This extended to all of your image preferences, logins and passwords, shopping information and all that.
Until hackers, and ad agencies, jumped on the train though.
These days, tracking cookies could be planted on your browser to record information on all the websites you are visiting, how long you are spending there, what you are looking at and how you interact with these websites too. If ad agencies don’t use that to pigeonhole and bombard you with products, marketers will use the information to drive up prices for you.
All that, and we have not mentioned the tendency for hackers to install rogue cookies on your browsers to collect sensitive data.
To fight that, the top browser providers (Firefox, Chrome, Safari) have implemented a feature that kicks against rogue cookies for you. You can also control the kind of information you want these cookies to have access to while you’re at that.
Using Private Browsing, Incognito Mode or whatever the in-house branding decides on, too, you can even browse the internet and not worry about cookie tracking, among other things.
Online Protection
Besides cookie protection, the average user is exposed to more dangers online than they know of.
The biggest of these concerns comes in the way of connecting to the web via unencrypted networks. That is usually the case when users subscribe to the use of free/ public Wi-Fi networks.
While such services are provided as part of a bigger value pack (e.g. at airports, coffee shops, hospitals, parks, etc.), that does not make them safe. In fact, these free Wi-Fi networks are responsible for a high degree of man-in-the-middle attacks, internet data sniffing, data recording and monitoring.
Manufacturers have taken to enlightening users on the dangers of such networks, but there is just so long a reach that the information can have. Thus, companies like HP have resorted to partnering up with VPN companies so as to boost the consumer security profile.
With a VPN encryption installed, users can be sure that their connection cannot be tempered with whenever they connect to the internet.
Audio-Visual Protection
You should not be surprised to know that webcam ports can be hacked to spy on you. In fact, just about any device that has a camera and can connect to the internet can be remotely taken control of. Since we are in the era of the Internet of Things (IoT), this is a concern that should not be taken with levity anymore.
The same can be said of microphone ports on our devices.
With users reporting seeing ads related to what they have discussed with others when their phones were in the room, that would not be ruled out. If ad agencies can get their hands on such data, how much more hackers?
OEMs are making sure their users have nothing to fear with a new wave of webcam kill switches that are coming with desktop and laptop computers today. Microphone ports can now also be muted when not in use on certain units.
Although this has not made its way to majority of units yet, it shows that some progress is being made, at least.