The Next Generation of Cyber Protection
We’ve all become aware of computer viruses infecting our PC’s. As many of us have learned, the simple virus has morphed and evolved over the last two decades. Now a virus doesn’t always mean simple. It can be a very real threat to our financial health and safety. Everyone with a computer needs on-line protection.
No one can assume their information will be safe. Your information can be taken from your computer by hackers as easily as Hamilton tow trucks can tow cars from no parking zones. It’s commonly called malware. Malicious software that finds it’s way into our home PCs’, Macs’ and smart phones.
“Malice (noun) desire to inflict injury, harm, or suffering on another, either because of a hostile impulse or out of deep-seated meanness.”
Yes, that’s it, malware. I know, I know… we are unfortunately routinely surprised that there are people who want to do us harm. Our surprise is a result of becoming localized. The people we interact with generally; family, friends, co-workers don’t wish to do us harm, but seek to protect us. It’s natural to feel somewhat sheltered by this cocoon of safety.
However, when we’re connected to the internet we are connected to the world, which means, sadly, every living psychopath on the planet with a computer and a desire to make money. They don’t even need any technical programming skills. There are other psychopaths that sell software ‘kits’ to these less technical criminals to steal from us. So it’s a problem.
The good news is for every problem there is an enterprising inventor that can come up with a solution. The race between these two sides has been going on for 20 years. Once the bad actor’s methods are discovered, the good guy programmers go to work to foil the plot. However, just like the arms race, it never ends. The bad guys find inventive ways to circumvent the new protections that have been engineered and then sold to us. Have you heard the term ‘zero-day-attack’ ? Zero-day-attack is when a clever criminal launches a new sophisticated scheme. The virus/malware protection industry, e.g., McAffe, Norton, Microsoft Security Essentials etc… haven’t discovered the new ploy yet and have yet to react to it. And when they do, it’ll be weeks later that the solution will trickle down to our home and office PCs.
So what in the heck are we to do? I think the ultimate solution for those of us in the US would be for the US Governments National Security Agency (NSA) with all of it’s high powered intelligence, knowledge of encryption, secret networks (dark-web), enemy sovereign nations, and criminal networks, to provide every citizen a virtual secure private network. It’s the Government’s prime directive to protect its citizens from attack. We are under attack; being attacked everyday!
Ok, so this plan is probably not going to happen. Now what do we do? Well, there is one enterprising cyber security company that has created a self learning Virtual Secure Network that the home and business user can subscribe to. AltasVSN protects users from malware, viruses and phishing attacks by blocking malicious websites. It also encrypts all your traffic to their servers to prevent spying. They also prevents potentially stolen data from leaving your PC. You can connect all your smart devices to it; PCs, Macs, tablets, smart phones… anything that connects to the internet and from any location, e.g., coffee shops open wifi. It’s not perfect, like protection provided by the NSA. But it’s a great step in that direction. Hope you check it out.
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