How Will We Protect Ourselves Virtually In The Future?

When I say virtually, I mean through technology.  When I say protect ourselves, I mean protect our identities, our data, our computers, our WIFI networks and our work environments.  The future is different the way you look at it. 

For some the future looks bright.  While the “bad” people out there keep getting smarter and find ways to make our technological lives miserable at times the “good” people are getting even smarter.  In the past being bad was easy.  All you had to do was be able to outsmart the anti-virus and spam programs.  You could prey on people who didn’t know how to protect themselves and do some pretty good damage without much risk of getting into trouble.  The governments of the world are looking into stiffening laws against these criminals which will give us the peace of mind that there is a penalty against them for what they do.  Right now we know that for someone to get arrested for hacking or spamming or the like they have to do a lot of damage before getting caught.  If the governments make their rules more stern we wouldn’t have to wait that long to see them pay.  Also the beautiful minds of the world are coming up with more protection for us.  There are numerous free software of the web to help protect our computers such as the following, just to name a few. 

Microsoft Security Essentials at http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows/products/security-essentials
Spybot Search & Destroy at http://www.safer-networking.org/en/home/index.html
Ad-Aware at http://www.lavasoft.com/products/ad_aware_free.php
& AVG Anti-Virus at http://free.avg.com/us-en/homepage

In the past it seemed Sematic and McAffee were the only ones with protection and they were pricey and to avoid the cost people would just risk not having one.  This helps everyone to get into the game and protect themselves.

 

There is also a greater awareness of front line security such as passwords.  People are learning that simple passwords are not good enough and they need to choose stronger ones.  If they are not told directly through a friend or other resource they are being told indirectly.  When they sign up for a new service on the web for most instances they are not allowed to choose a simple password, they are being told they need to add numbers and extra characters to it.  For example, HSBC Bank, they have an online banking system.  For online banking we would want to make sure we are safe right?  We wouldn’t want anyone to see how much money we have (or how little most of us have) and who and how much we are paying out.  So HSBC takes that very serious and have put a lot of measures in place to protect us, the consumer.  See the page below and how HSBC protects their customers and the measures they take and how they, at the same time, try to educate on how the users can protect themselves, not just on HSBC’s site, but on all sites.
http://www.hsbc.co.in/1/2/personal/internet-and-self-service-banking/online-security

Then there is also better and cheaper technology coming for the “futuristic” security.  The stuff we’ve only seen in movies before.  The fingerprint and iris recognition type of stuff.  Some laptops already come with a fingerprint pad and software to only allow certain people to use your laptop.  Without this technology what do we have to separate us from all the other John Smith’s out there? Our Social Security Number.  And we all know how risky that is to share that information.  Iris’s and fingerprints are also unique to a person.  So the more this biometric technology is used the less we will have to share our SSN which is definitely a good thing.  See this video for example.  India is using Iris and fingerprint technology to create a biometric database to give all of their citizens an identity. 

All of this will make our virtual lives a little more easy to bear.  We will all be able to be more comfortable using our laptops, cell phones, desktops and other devices.  We should be safer but we all should know that we have to keep educated and use preventative measures to protect ourselves.

I’ve talked about the technology and how the future should look bright for most people but there are others out there who will think that the future is bleak.  They will think that there is no way to fully protect ourselves.  That the “bad” people of the world will always find a way to beat the system and hack us.  They are probably right, but if you look at cyber warfare this way you will never get to fully enjoy the technology available to us. 

Coming from the age where I lived through the world of going to the video store to rent a VHS movie and having to make the decision if I wanted to switch to the Beta tapes which were the movie source of the future I can see where technology has come in a short amount of time.  For a little over 10 bucks a month I can get access to Netflix and watch Movies and TV shows for free streamed to my TV.  For 8 bucks a month I can get access to Hulu to watch more recent TV shows than Netflix.  I don’t even need to go to the video store any more.  This is one example of how technology has improved.  So as technology improves so must the security that protects that technology.  I feel safe in the fact that companies like Microsoft dedicate teams to preventing security breaches before it happens.  That websites like Google and Bing make searching a for virus definitions and preventions so easy.  That websites like Download.com can give me free software to protect myself.  The future is bright, no matter what the naysayers say.  We just have to know how to protect ourselves and keep the light on.

Over the course of this semester I've written in this blog to complete the course.  What will I do with it after the course has completed.  To be quite honest I most likely will not continue writing in the blog.  To me life is too busy to do things such as this.  It’s the same reason I do not use Facebook, play video games, or use blogging sites.  With so much information and technology available you really do have to choose what you want to spend your time on.  Things like these I choose not to.  I do see advantages of the blog but not enough to where I could use it to further myself.  I could not use it in a portfolio because the meaning of a blog to me is to use opinion and a opinion is like a coin.  Some people agree with heads and some people agree with tails but how do you know that the potential employer you are sharing your blog with agrees with you?  Same as the controversy of employers looking at employee Facebook sites.  Outside of the blog I have learned a lot in this course.  Enough that I can say I’m walking away a smarter, more aware person.