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Keep your Information Safe! What you need to know about Cyber Security!

99% of computers are vulnerable to exploit kits (Chen), and society faces a large issue of

weak cyber security throughout the world. Exploit kits are tools designed to run on web servers,

these web servers are nearly compatible with most software companies we use today, such as

Java. The purpose of these exploit kits are to find software vulnerabilities in machines client use

that are communicating with that server. After identifying these software vulnerabilities, hackers

and cyber-criminal groups utilize these vulnerabilities and breach the security of the software,

this may give them access to certain valuable and sensitive information. (Chen) Cyber Security

remains a large issue throughout large corporations like Adobe and can lead to billions of dollars

in software and hardware damage in these corporations. The research question that is addressed

in this paper is, what is the most comprehensive and effective plan that software companies can

develop and put in effect to reduce security breaches in their companies. These security breaches

are very damaging to society, and leads to many problems, such as stolen personal information.

Security breaches occur as a result of vulnerabilities in a companys or corporations systems,

these vulnerabilities are then utilized to get hackers past the corporations security and into

sensitive information that the security system may be guarding. (Browdie) This information

could range from account information, such as passwords or even much larger scale information,
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such as classified government and military information. Personal information that may be hacked

could contain an individuals social security number, and may lead to enormous damage to an

individuals life. Large problems also occur with the government due to poor cyber security, and

can lead to many problems in the central government of society. For instance, Russian hackers

nearly brought the country, Estonia, to its knees through a devastating cyber hack that nearly

shook their government. This hack led to the government collapsing and led to deep issues in

communication throughout the nation, posing significant damage to the sole ropes of society.

After this hack, Estonia had to rebuild their infrastructure from the ground up with built in Cyber

Security, such as Citizen Data Cards, that held each citizens personal information, and

registration in society. (Ericsson) Additionally, discussed throughout this paper is daily habits

citizens can put forward in their lives to help make their lives more secure, and why Cyber

Security is a very staggering problem throughout the world.

Cyber Security is an enormous issue throughout society today. In the modern society today,

nearly everything in society is connected through technology. Anything from classified

government information to personal information, like credit card and social security information

connected through the cloud or web. Everything is backed up to the web to protect information

and make sure it is not lost or stolen. However, there are many vulnerabilities in the web
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database, which may not protect the data as well as expected. If these vulnerabilities are not

sealed, great issues will occur and can lead to cyber hacks and stolen information. Sensitive

Information about Companies and even possibly the government could be very detrimental to

society, and could bring about huge issues. (Byres) Another example of the impact of cyber

hacks is shown in the hacking of the Democratic National Committee, which was a hack

committed by a group of Russian Hackers. This hack was nearly detrimental to the central ring of

society and laws that govern that society in the United States. (Byres) Poor Cyber Security

additionally leads to millions in dollars of damage to companies and corporations. Cybercrime

damage costs are predicted to hit $6 trillion annually by 2021. (Lyne) This damage is extremely

blowing to society and requires critical attention by individuals to ensure that these breaches are

avoided and their information and lives are protected and secure. Examples of this is shown in

the can be shown personal records in society, where over 169 million personal records were

exposed in 2015, stemming from 781 publicized breaches across the financial, business,

education, government and healthcare sectors. (ITRC) These personal records possibly contained

very sensitive information about an individual and could result in enormous problems throughout

their lives. Additionally, if an entire company is at risk for a companywide breach, millions of

users that actively use that software will be largely affected and their information may be stolen

and manipulated by these hackers. Cybercrime damage costs are predicted to hit $6 trillion
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annually by 2021. (Lyne) This damage is very blowing to society and requires critical attention

by individuals to ensure that these breaches are avoided and their information and lives are

protected and secure, (Byres)

There are many cconsequences that result from poor and little cyber security protection in a

company. For instance, personal information can be breached and stolen due to poor cyber

security. An interesting statistic is that nearly 68% of funds lost as a result of a cyber attack were

declared unrecoverable (Byres) This means that only 32% of data is recoverable from a cyber

attack and that nearly 2/3 of the information present on a system is lost. This cripples a system

and nearly makes it nonfunctional, leaving it to take several years to be repaired, or never

repaired at all. 68% is the vast majority of this information and nearly shows how most

information is not recoverable after a vast cyber hack. This can nearly shut down enormous

companys and damage very valuable and sensitive information the government may be holding

on those servers. Additionally, personal information, such as credit card, bank account, or social

security information may be stolen and millions of dollars of damage are stolen from these

accounts and companies. An example of this is shown in the how the United States loses $100

billion annually as a result of cyber crime. (Lyne) This shows how expensive the problem of

cyber security is for the United States, and why it requires attention. Cyber attacks are also very

crippling to governments. For instance, the current issue of Russian hackers and the country
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Estonia. Russian Hackers nearly brought the country, Estonia to its knees through a devastating

cyber hack. This cyber hack took down the nations central government, and the society had to

be rebuilt from the ground up with Citizen Data Cards. These data cards contained each citizens

personal information and had to be carried on their person at all times to ensure the safety of

their information after the hack. This international issue clearly shows how cyber security is

clearly an issue at even the central parts of government and society and requires drastic attention.

Additionally, billions of dollars of damages occur throughout the world due to poor Cyber

Security. For instance, popular websites that the daily citizens of a country may use, such as

Spotify, Twitter, and CNN are very susceptible to cyber hacks These hacks could range from data

hacks, which hacks personal account information and credit card information to DDOS attacks.

(Williams) DDOS attacks nearly shutdown the server by flooding it with thousands of fake users,

the system then overloads and shuts down to it passing the systems maximum capacity and

results in the service shutting down for hours. This may cause exponential damage to the server

and may take months to fix depending on how large scale the hack was.
Cyber Crime remains an enormous issue and needs to be faced, and cyber security needs to

be better improved. Cyber Crime is a very large issue in society that many individuals do not

realize greatly affect our daily lives, and our daily tasks, such as simply getting money from the

bank, or even using your internet at home. According to Friedman. Up to 200 billion IoT devices
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will need securing by 2020 (Friedman). This means that 200 billion IoT devices or devices

connected to the internet will be insecure, leaving them open to hacks that can steal information

of these devices, in addition to shutting them down, leaving them to be non-functional and

fragmented. This emphasizes on how much needed Cyber Security will be needed to protect 200

Billion Devices, which is nearly 30 times the population of our planet, Earth, and why it requires

immediate attention. Additionally, since nearly all of societys information is on technology,

hacks could be very critical against our society. Personal information, such as Account

Information is on the web and can easily be breached by skilled hackers. This information on

may contain anything from credit card numbers to more deeply personal information like an

individuals social security number. Surprisingly, even the central part to our society, our

government, is vulnerable to cyber-attacks. An example of this can be shown in the hack on

Estonia, which was committed by a group of Russian Hackers, and nearly brought that nation to

its knees. Other examples can be shown in the United States when Russian Hackers were able to

hack the Democratic National Committee, which is nearly the central government of the United

States, and governs and controls daily life. However, this problem can be minimized through

certain solution plans. (Twomey) Solutions do not have to be complicated and simple habits,

such as creating secure passwords will greatly help in reducing security breaches throughout

society. In addition to that other solutions, such as keeping your applications updated will allow
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new security vulnerabilities to be sealed because corporations continually put forward updates to

seal security issues they may find. Updating passwords regularly will often cause hackers to get

past password information and cause them to not be able to login into your account. Another

simple solution is turning on the option of two factor authentication, which allows individuals to

verify their identity through another device, whether that be through their cell phone or laptop,

and greatly minimize their chances of being hacked. There are also many additional solutions for

deeper cyber security solutions, such as upgrading security to have less vulnerability

Corporations should pay more funding towards security and multiple layers of security to ensure

that breaches are very unlikely in their system. (Konkel) Corporations can also put funding to

seal breaches that they may find in their system. The final solution society can put forward is to

make everyone aware of the problem of Cyber Security. This can be done through multiple ways,

such as through informing the public through advertisements and public service announcements.

Additionally, schools can put forward education and curriculum to educate the younger

generation of this issue that will be a much larger problem in their lives

More comprehensive plans need to be put forward by software companies to reduce

security breaches in their companies. Additionally, daily citizens and internet users can put

forward certain cyber security habits in their daily lives to make their life more secure and less

susceptible to data hacks, that could steal their personal information, such as their social security
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or credit card. Poor cyber security leads to billions of dollars of damage to companies every year;

even on large corporations, such as Adobe and Microsoft. Additionally, poor cyber security may

lead to many personal issues, including the hacking and theft of personal information, such as an

individuals bank account. (McClean) However, these issues can be faced through simple habits

in a normal citizens life, such as generating more complex passwords and upgrading to a

stronger firewall for their data. Additionally, citizens can put forward certain habits, such as

continually changing and updating their passwords, keeping their applications updated and new,

threat modeling by putting forward certain security barriers, and finally, enabling two factor

authentication. Two factor authentication puts forward a second layer of protection which forces

the individual to verify the account is theirs through the use of verifying themselves through a

separate device, whether that be through a cell phone, email, etc. (Kritzinger) Software

companies can also put forward certain plans designed to fight Cyber Crime and increase Cyber

Security throughout their companies. These plans will help fight the damage of cybercrime in

society, and protect the worlds valuable and sensitive data from the hands of cyber hacking

groups and criminals These simple fixes in society can help save billions of dollars in damage

and protect the worlds cyber information put on the web.

Works Cited
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