Ethical Hacking?!

27

September

2021

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Nowadays, cybersecurity challenges are posing a severe threat to businesses. Intrusions are on the rise, according to recent trends and cybersecurity statistics. In particular, 68 percent of businesses believe their cybersecurity risks are rising. That is also the primary reason why businesses must install adequate security methods for their IT systems, which aid in the management of potential vulnerabilities as well as the proactive protection of their platform before the next hacker attempts to get access to your network. 

In fact, the cost of a malware attack is projected to be $2.6 million USD. Furthermore, a data breach cost a corporation $3.9 million. As a result, more businesses are increasing their cybersecurity budgets. Investments in cybersecurity surged by 141 percent between 2010 and 2019. As a result, the high increase indicates that more businesses are taking security seriously.

Previously, the term hacker was coined by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1960 to describe those programmers who exploited their expertise to gain unauthorized access to computer systems. Ethical hackers, on the other hand, look for program flaws in order to design mainframe systems that are more efficient.

10 Best Ethical Hacking Tools For Ethical Hackers in 2021

With the rise in popularity of the internet and e-commerce, the primary motivation for hackers is to steal important information and profit. As a result, ethical hacking has become a critical component of a proactive security strategy in businesses. Overall, ethical hacking is viewed as a justified and ethical technique because it aims to find vulnerabilities in IT systems.

White hat, an ethical hacking technique, analyzes the behavior and resilience of a system, in the face of external attacks. During this process, an information security expert will attempt to access sensitive data, under an organized set of actions. However, this technique often gets confused with penetration testing. This technique offers vulnerability assessments and cybersecurity updates. Examples of the latter technique are Tenable.io and Acunetix. These tools have a holistic vision that transparently and securely enables anti-hacking processes. They for instance provide security to counteract vulnerabilities, malware, and breaches. 

For now, think about it and keep it in mind for when you start working for a tech firm or start one yourself, even if it sounds contentious. Nowadays, a lot of useful business information can be found on the internet. You will not want to be vulnerable, right?

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Information Technology and its consequences on society: What makes us addicted to our mobile phone?

16

September

2021

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the-social-dilemma-netflix - Informaticalessen

The key thing in creating a blog is to discuss diverse but current topics. What if I tell you that this post will cover maybe even the most intriguing topic of all? A topic that has planted its roots all around in our society and affects our lives in many different ways. Maybe you guessed it already correctly, but this post will cover the topic of Information technology and its consequences on society, and in particular social media. In short, information technologies include techniques for the fast processing of information, the use of statistical and mathematical models for decision-making, and the simulation of higher-order thinking through computer programs (Leavitt & Whisler, 1958). 

Over the years nothing has developed as fast as Information technology programs. Especially now that we are situated in the middle of a pandemic, humanity made use of information technology more than ever before (McKinsey, 2020). For example, due to these rapid developments, Social Media facilitated the ever more sharing of ideas, thoughts, and information through the building of virtual networks and communities. Overall, I believe that advances in information technology have enabled excellent access to everyday activities that would have previously been impossible due to COVID-19 mitigation efforts.

Even though social media enabled to some form of connection with friends and family all over the world during the pandemic, there is mounting evidence that social media also leads to negative effects. In this case, addiction. Applications such as WhatsApp, YouTube, Facebook, Snapchat, and Instagram compel to you through their algorithms. These algorithms try to keep you on the platform for as long as possible. It accomplishes this by gathering data about you and then recommending specific content for you to watch based on that data. Their main reason for this is to show more ads to you, which generates revenue. Assume you are watching finance-related YouTube videos; it will automatically recommend new finance-related videos to you, which will easily keep you watching for at least another 45 minutes to an hour. But far more important, it gains new personal data every split-second. Netflix’s documentary ‘The Social Dilemma’ shows how social media and its algorithmic-based decisions nurture addiction, manipulate people and governments, and spread conspiracy theories and fake information. More specifically, it contributes to increased polarization within our society. To clarify, we increasingly live-in online filter bubbles that only expose us to the ideas we already agree with, or likes and shares in Facebook terms. This is consistent with the literature on confirmation bias, showing that we are most likely to agree with ideas that align with our pre-existing beliefs. Altogether, we therefore believe that pure algorithmic decisions lead to rather unethical consequences.

Fortunately, there are ways to combat social media addiction. Firstly, more people must become aware of the problematic, and unethical nature of how social media works. You can contribute to this process by spreading the “Social Dilemma” documentary to as many people as possible. Secondly, social media companies should be pressured more to change their algorithms, which are partly meant to get people addicted to their application. You could for instance participate by signing Accountable Tech’s petition. Lastly, you could restart the way you utilize social media yourself whenever you experience any forms of addiction. For example, you could try to avoid watching the recommended videos on YouTube. Also, it could be very helpful to have specific social media free-moments. 

References

Leavitt, J.H., & Whisler, L. T. (19580 Management in the 1980’s. Harvard Business Review.

McKinsey & Comany. (2020). How COVID-19 has pushed companies over the technology 

tipping point – and transformed business forever. Retrieved from https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/strategy-and-corporate-finance/our-insights/how-covid-19-has-pushed-companies-over-the-technology-tipping-point-and-transformed-business-forever

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