Merry Christmas everyone! As we near the end of the year, I thought I’d share some of my favourite cyber security memes and graphics. At Uzado, we strive to be educational when it comes to all things cyber security. For some of us, we learn better visually. They say a picture is worth a thousand words, so I guess this blog is a short 4000. We first shared these in 2018, and now it’s become our holiday tradition. In anticipation of the holiday season, have a laugh, share these silly memes with your friends and family, or better yet, be inspired to better secure your networks in 2021.
Phishing
Phishing is not new, and it doesn’t appear to be going away. Phishing works, because someone is always willing to “click the link.” Human curiosity gets the better of us sometimes. Anti-virus and anti-malware programs are a great start to curb phishing emails from getting in, but user education is the best defence, as sometimes not all malicious emails are caught by software.
Ransomware
Ransomware dominated headlines in 2017 and 2018. Like phishing, this type of scam isn’t going to go away anytime soon, because it works! Corporations and government offices desperate to regain their data have been paying the ransom. There are many problems with paying the ransom. First, like the meme indicates, is that you can’t actually trust that you will be able to get your data back. The second is the growing concern that some of these hackers are working for either foreign governments or terrorist organizations, and that the ransom is being used to fund terrorist activities. The best defence against ransomware, always ensure you back up your data, and that the back-ups are secure.
Password Re-use: The Case for MFA
Again, another case of human nature working against us. Most of us now have multiple logins for multiple email accounts, workplace systems, and apps. Trying to come up with a unique password for each and everything we use is very cumbersome. Research shows that almost 80% of us use the same password, or a variation of the same password across all the systems they use. Biometrics and multi-factor authentication methods are helpful. Using a password generator/management tool to help create strong passwords and store them are also another way to avoid re-using the same password.
Privacy Settings
Of course, it is the holiday season, and this meme caught my attention recently. I recently wrote about how some dating sites have been selling customer data online. Most of us don’t take the time to check the default privacy settings on our apps. Or read the lengthy terms and conditions, which spell out what a company intends to do with your data. The other thing this speaks to, is our ever-growing comfort with sharing so much of our personal details and life events on social media. Santa, or anyone else for that matter, really does know if we’ve been naughty or nice!
Happy holidays from Uzado!
