Publish at November 08 2023Updated November 08 2023
Protecting yourself against cyber attacks
A major risk in the digital age
Billions of pieces of data circulate in the digital world. While some of this data may be of little importance, much of it could be worth its weight in gold to hackers. Not to mention the fact that multiple connections offer thousands of doors through which hackers can enter and wreak havoc.
In recent years, many countries and companies have suffered attacks that have had as much impact on sinking information as on shutting down computer or electrical systems. Criminal hacker groups are springing up all over the world, and some countries are using them to destabilize others.
Fortunately, very few of the thousands of offensives carried out every minute actually reach their target. Countries are now aware of these threats and are keeping a close watch on attempts, especially the more successful ones, in order to correct cybersecurity weaknesses. It should be pointed out that many connected objects and home or office networks are poorly protected, offering great opportunities for hacking.
The other approach is through the processors themselves, which contain spying properties. In fact, European countries and the United States are now banning Chinese products on their territory, as some have shown deliberate breaches in order to spy on various aspects of users. Even so, it remains more difficult to monitor. What's more, advances in quantum computing could challenge our current encryption keys. Tomorrow's computers could dismantle them in a matter of seconds.
Specialists are working on algorithms to prevent these supercomputers from doing so.
As for us simple users, it seems important to remember to have different passwords for the applications we have, never click on links or attachments in suspicious e-mails, make regular data backups and finally update the patches that plug security loopholes as soon as they are published.
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