Month: February 2021

Digital information exchange has seen a meteoric rise over the past decade. No matter how ‘traditional’ an individual, business or institution might like to call themselves, a digital integration is unavoidable and in fact, quite necessary to embrace.

Educational institutions have particularly benefited from this transformation due to the sheer volume of data that they generate, save and exchange. Be it sensitive personal information like special needs, disability, sexual orientation or confidential information like address, contact details and exam results, educational institutions have been leading this transformation from the front.

The variety and sensitivity of data that is normally exchanged in educational institutions, makes digital exchange platforms that much more alluring. The speed and ease that these platforms offer, bring efficiency and agility.

“Data is only a tool, and so can improve things, or (if) used incorrectly, make things worse…”.Says Terry Heick, the founder and director of TeachThought in his article on ‘What Is The Future Of Data In Education?’1

Cloud based information exchange and data storage have always been insecure. The Covid 19 pandemic further complicated matters when suddenly ‘teaching from home’ – an erstwhile preposterous concept for teaching and learning – became the new norm. The sudden and unexpected pandemic resulted in institutions being forced to take a ‘reactive approach’ to data management rather than forge a ‘proactive process’. This has resulted in extremely sensitive data being exchanged over questionable platforms including highly insecure modes such as text messages, personal phones and emails, WhatsApp etc.

A recent study by Capita2 revealed that between 2019 and 2020, 23% of data breaches were caused by human error, 25% due to system glitches (including compromised cloud storage) and 52% by malicious attack. Between 2019-20 the cost of data breach in the education industry alone was \$3.90 million.

So how can institutions be sure that the platforms they use for data sharing are secure? Are institutions aware of the unknown risks of data breach and data loss? Is their data safe?

These are essential questions that need addressing. Furthermore, the statutory requirement set by the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), also needs to be fulfilled. This act stipulates all educational institutes to put … “a procedure in place to facilitate the transfer of … records, …by local educational agencies to … school for any student who is enrolled … in the school”.3

Technology in the next decade is set to accelerate at a dizzying pace and educational institutions are already getting ready, once again, to lead this from the front. Now is therefore the best time for them to proactively plan for and implement secure data management systems.

DropSecure provides a one stop shop for effectively reducing these risks while ensuring legal compliance. With no logins to create, no software to install and no passwords to memorise, DropSecure provides military grade encryption to its users. Managers can set expiration dates, control and revoke access on files and folders so that no data is ever found in the wrong hands; and certainly never lost.

DropSecure’s mission is to simplify your communication and sharing needs without knowing the contents of your data. To that extent, you can rest assured that your data is in your control.

Get secure with DropSecure cyber security’s 7-day free trial today.

According to cyber security firm Kaspersky, DDoS attacks have tripled during the second quarter of 2020. In fact, they jumped 217% year on year (YoY), 20% up from the first quarter. The FBI reported in August that their Cyber Division received up to 4,000 complaints a day. Finally, a report by Interpol showed that a huge rise in the number of cyber-attacks has been observed and recorded in 2020. In a single 4-month period, 907,000 spam messages, 737 malware-related incidents, and 48,000 malicious URLs were detected by a private-sector partner.

This is an alarming rise in cyber-attacks and related activity. What’s clear is that during COVID-19 cyber security has become an essential service.

The chief problem seems to be the work from home protocols established by various companies and organizations. As a result, employees are accessing company servers through their own computers and devices. These aren’t as secure as the ones at their workplaces, of course. Neither are their devices protected by the same rules and regulations that govern workplace behavior. This hasn’t just left multiple access points for hackers and cyber terrorists to exploit, but also created much easier targets.

Phishing Scams Galore

According to the World Health Organization, cyber scammers and hackers have taken advantage of the coronavirus pandemic. They are sending fraudulent emails and WhatsApp messages to spread misinformation. However, this also pertains to URLs that can lead to miracle cures or very cheap DIY tests.

These types of links are often phishing scams which can lead to the compromise of a device. The link allows for a malicious program to be downloaded on to your device which can then grant access to your work server.

According to software company OpenText, 1 in 4 Americans have gotten phishing related emails in their inbox. What’s more the report highlights that most companies and consumers are also falsely confident about their cybersecurity. 95% did recognize phishing as a persistent problem. However, 76% also admitted to opening emails from unknown contacts. 59% blamed it on phishing emails looking more “realistic” than before.

However, 59% believed they knew what to do to keep their data safe. 29% admitted they’ve clicked on a phishing scam this year. 19% also confirmed the receipt of a COVID-19 related phishing scam.

Effects on Small Businesses

It’s clear that more robust work from home protocols/systems are needed to work through the pandemic. Organizations can’t keep dealing with individual instances of fraud or cybercrimes. Small businesses specifically need a secure platform on which to operate.

The normal cloud providers like Amazon and Google or Microsoft don’t provide high level security protocols. For example, none of them provide end to end encryption for your files or mandatory 2-factor authentication. These are essential security features that all cloud platforms should have to keep out intruders.

Luckily, there is a cloud provider out there that offers all this and more. DropSecure’s standard, free plan, offers encryption, protected links, and 2-factor authentication. What’s more, it provides automatic file purging every 7 days.

Get secure with DropSecure cyber security’s 7-day free trial today.

“In November 2018, Marriott International announced a data breach involving about approximately 500 million Starwood hotel customers. The exposed information included names, contact information, passport number, Starwood Preferred Guest numbers, travel information, and other personal information.”

The threat to personal data as it moves or rests within the digital universe has never been more real as now; the need to protect it never more critical for individuals and organizations as now. The paradigm shift in the way we transact at work and out of it has increased the volume of data being transferred on digital platforms. With it there has also been a surge in data breaches, undermining the security of sensitive data, including personal details and financial figures.

So, why isn’t encryption enough?

Encryption uses an encryption algorithm to encode readable data into unreadable data while in transit or storage and only the recipient of the encrypted file transfer can decode it using the corresponding decryption key. This prevents any unauthorized access to data but does not guarantee that your file is protected from the service provider. The reason being, when data is encrypted at rest just on the server, the service provider has full access to your data. Not just that, in order to stream the data, it has to be decrypted on the server itself. So encryption at rest is like encrypting the data with a key that is placed right next to it and, the data still needs to streamed in clear text from server to the client. In order words, your data is accessible to a third person without you really agreeing to it.

End-to-end encryption is the key to secure file transfer and delivery.

End-to-end encryption implies that the only two endpoints – the sender and the receiver – will have the keys to decode data. In other words, when you send end-to-end encrypted files, not even the service provider can decrypt the contents of the encrypted file transfers. In the public domain of the internet where certain data transfer systems facilitate data transfer for free or as part of their larger service ecosystem, end-to-end encryption ensures your right to privacy is upheld at all times.

Unlock cutting-edge end-to-end encryption with DropSecure.

This technology driven platform enables fully compliant, end-to-end encrypted and easy-to-access file transfers with and even without an account. It encrypts all files using z security grade algorithms before they leave your device. The files are decrypted only after your recipient has downloaded them.

Which means when your data arrives on the DropSecure server, it is already encrypted with your keys and those are never sent to our servers. So, unlike encryption at rest, we ensure even we do not have access to your data. No one can access your data without your permission.

DropSecure helps to overcome a certain challenge that the IT departments world-over are up against; developing and installing increasingly sophisticated firewalls around the edges of their networks are a response to cyber threats.

But what of the leaks and breaches that originate from within the networks, rendering the peripheral defenses ineffective?

DropSecure’s end-to-end encryption ensures no one can read your files. Not even us, even while they are residing on our servers.

• We never store the keys required to decrypt your data.
• For even greater security, we offer a “zero-knowledge” file transfer option where your encryption keys never pass through our systems!
• For all download links (for our registered and unregistered users) our real-time encryption shares a private link and a one-time code with you and your recipient(s) using our patent-pending technology.

Going further, when your data is in transit, it resides in our highly secured datacenters that have cleared a wide range of compliance requirements, including SOC1, HIPAA, and FIPS. Depending on whether you are a guest-user or a premium registered user, the data will stay there for an interval or till such time you choose to delete it.

• The global average cost of a data breach is $3.9 million across SMBs*
• Since COVID-19, the US FBI reported a 300% increase in reported cybercrimes**
• 9.7 Million Records healthcare records were compromised in September 2020 alone***

The threat to data security will always be there. With DropSecure’s end-to-end encryption you can choose to be at the razor-edge of data security solutions, storing, sharing and managing files in the cloud with absolute ease.

Source: cybintsolutions.com
Article:15 Alarming Cyber Security Facts and Stats