The world right now exists under constant connection to the internet, thanks to the advanced modern technology. Such is an environment that encourages creativity and innovation, and while that can be looked at as an advantage, it has created room for the thriving of businesses, and that involves black market.
It is therefore not a surprise that cyber security issues have raised a brow across the board, more especially when it comes to data engineering. As a business owner, or a data engineer for that matter, it counts to know that there are some loopholes in information security that can pose threats to you. Find some of them below:
Overreliance on mobile technology
The pace at which technology has grown has popularized the use of mobile technology so much that today’s society is unbreakable in their level of dependence on mobile technology. While there is nothing wrong with using smartphones, they have become an informational security loophole for any data engineering efforts. It is a lot easier for cyber criminals to get access to people’s confidential information through mobile technology than through laptops and desktops.
The overreliance on mobile phones to conduct all online transactions increases the security vulnerabilities because it is much harder to secure a smart phone from hacker attempt and threats than it is to secure a desktop device.
Social media attacks
The popularity of social media is very widespread today, and undoubtedly, has become one powerful tool for internet marketing, and even, data engineering. Even then, social media attacks are an area that you cannot overlook as regards informational security. As people are bust sharing information from one platform to another, the posts and media that people share come embedded with links that could invite malware and viruses on devices.
Ideally, hackers and other cybercriminals leverage the fondness of people with social media channels as an opportunity to distribute complex ‘water holing’ attacks, which infect a cluster of websites at a time.
Social engineering
Social engineering basically depends on social networking and interactions among people, along with psychological manipulation of people so as to gain access to people’s information. On the internet, people are busy transmitting data from one network to another and from one person to the other. In the process, an environment of trust and vulnerability is built based on social validation, which creates a loophole for social engineering to pose informational security risks.
This loophole is especially risky because it is a mischievous form of intrusion to information privacy that can have unpredictable yet dire consequences.
Corporate data leakage
Every corporate has its members access some company information through their personal devices. While an organization may try as much as possible to keep their security intact, there is no telling the amount of confidential data that can be exposed when a hacker gets hold of any kind of information from an oblivious staff member.
Technically, you cannot always control what the employees do with their smartphones or corporate phones when at home. Thereof, even though a company determines to distribute corporate phones to its employees, cybercriminals can easily capitalize on this loophole as a way to get access into a company’s confidential information.
Outdated security software
It may be common knowledge to you, but not everyone is aware that outdated security software are in themselves a security risk, more than a form of information security means. As you keep on generating data and sharing it on different internet platforms, outdated security software can be the loophole that implicates your entire firewall and security system.
The whole reason why you must be intentional about updating your security software is that they are made to fight against threats, and therefore, when new codes of threats are generated, if you do not update your system, then your security software are incapable of fighting them, hence exposing you for threats and attacks.
Proper device configuration
It’s alarming that something as simple as the configuration settings of your device can cause a major data breach in your data engineering process. Companies have a common habit of overlooking simple instructions that come with big data tools. Although keenly working through the configuration security settings can be overwhelming, in just a single decision and click of a button, you can open your system up for threats and attacks.
Be careful that you do not accidentally enable one critical functionality in the process of skipping some important configuration settings, as this will only be a loophole for security vulnerabilities.
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