INFORMATION SECURITY RELATED RISKS AND PREVENTION

Simple steps to prevent you being victimized for an Information Security based

Attack

Today information security has become a part of our lives. Consciously or not everyone uses

Information Technology (IT). Regardless of the extent of sophistication of Mobile phones,

Computers, iPods, iPhones, iPads, Navigation systems, and ATM Machines or Cyber cafes yet you

are at Information security related risk. Simply any device with processing power we call a

computer and if it has any form of connectivity it is called a communication device. The greater

number of features the equipment or the device has it becomes more vulnerable. Either category

of these devices falls within the classification of information technology base devices of equipment.

As a result of globalization any device invented and introduced today will be available in the open

market tomorrow. Most of the high tech devices available in the market have not been subjected to

proper information security testing procedures before they reach the general public. The reason is;

heavy competition among the production companies. Every company wants to release its own

product to the market before other competitors release other compatible products. This

competition compromises quality, security testing and other necessary post production procedures.

This becomes even worse when some critical high tech equipment and devices used by high-tech

intelligence agencies for their investigations can now be found in the Singapore, and Hong Kong

based Chinese open market at very low prices without any restrictions. Some of them can even be

ordered from home and delivered to one’s doorstep without verifying the intention of use.

This is an emerging issue in Asian countries including Sri Lanka. Since a growing number of

people are required to use information technology based equipment, processors and activities

these days, information security risks also have risen rapidly. According to recent reports many of

Sri Lanka’s young generation have been victims of Information Security related attacks. The main

reason is lack of awareness about information security risks related to the devices, technologies

and processors that they are using. This article attempts to describe, with examples, some of the

threats associated with Information Technology related equipment.The objective of this article is to give you a summarized form of information about technology/Devices and Procedures people use currently. This information describes their security risks and provides simple precautions one can take in order to prevent being victim to information security based attacks. Many of the researches and case studies have proven that most of the incidents happen due to lack of awareness about the

technologies and their impacts. I will not be discussing the technology or technical details of t

he devices and how their security can be breached, but will try to give you general understa

nding and awareness about the Information Security related risk of devices that you are using

and what simple precautions you can take in order to minimize the security risk. I have not gon

e into greater details since my objective is to prepare a simple paper of security risks and precau

tions. I have included in the final page some of the definitions of IT related terms that would be 

helpful.

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Thanks

Kushantha Gunawardana
MSc-IT, C|EH, C|HFI, CISE, IEEE, MBCS, MCS (lk), MCSE (W2K) + M MCSA (W2K3), HNDIT