This week’s part of the assignment is to summarize my entire blog I wrote since the beginning of this term/class. Each week I wrote different topic about information security. I chose some topic from textbook and some that interested me about information security. In my Summary blog, I will summarize each week what I wrote.
Week 1, How to Prevent Cybercrime
On Week 1, I talked about how we can prevent the cybercrime. As we know cybercrime has increased rapidly. Criminals are finding ways to hack our personal information. As internet users we should all be educated about what and where to access information. Some of the precaution approaches like avoiding scams securely dispose of your personal information, securing browser and keeping password private can help from cyber crime.
Week 2, 4 Quick tips to safely store your data in the cloud
Cloud is a hot topic right now. It’s becoming a trend for organization to move their data into cloud. I believe most of us also use cloud to store our information like pictures & documents. Drop box, Google drive, MS. One Drive are some of the common cloud storage software available free of cost. Storing data in cloud does not mean it’s safe and secure. As a information security student we must know nothing on Internet is secure. We have to and we must take few steps to protect. Week2 blog explains some quick 4 steps to safely store data in the cloud.
Week3, How to avoid online scams when selling your cell phone or tablet?
This week again was all about avoiding or preventing us from cybercrime. Apple had released Iphone 6 on this week, so I thought it was right time to put something for old Iphone sellers. I read few articles about people becoming a victim of online scams. It is important to know this information when we are selling something online like eBay, Amazon and craigslist.
Week 4, Business Contingency Planning
It was time to talk about what we learned on week 4. Preparing for something unexpected is contingency planning. Business can face any situation from financial crisis, high/low market demand, decline on market share etc. So in order to be prepared for the unexpected situation business need to have a contingency plan. Having a contingency plan helps business to react quickly, stay ahead of competitors, and lead with confidence.
Week 5, Importance of Security Policy
On week 5 my blog was about the importance of security policy. This topic was also taken from text book and the week’s class discussion. Today, Information security has become the core part of business. It is important for business to maintain the availability, integrity and confidentiality of information in order to remain business. So, how do you regulate all of this? Having a right security policy in hand helps define the overall security strategy. Blog also talked about various kinds of security policy like Issue-specific security policy and system specific security policy. Having an information security helps organization provide framework to keep company at desired security level and avoid possible security threat.
Week 6, The Importance of Security Awareness Training:
As we talk about the policy and planning, it is important to train employee about the security awareness program. Employees should be educated about the information security. Making employees aware of cyber threats and the huge loss that can cause by hackers is important. Organization can implement different trainings like face to face, seminars, webinar or awareness through email. This will help ensure employees have solid understanding of company security policy and procedures.
Week7, Issue-Specific Security Policy
As my blog on week 5 talked about Importance of security policy, I thought it was worthwhile to talk about Issue-specific security policy. It is one among three information security policy. It is also one of the common policies used by business and organization. It covers mainly electronic mail, use of internet, computer usage, and other personal use of equipment. The objective to talk about this topic was to assure employers and members of organization on what resources can be used and what cannot be used during work.
Week8, Threat Identification
Threat or risks are not something that can be avoided completely. But they should be identified constantly and managed to minimize the risk. By identifying the threat or risk on time, organization can save lot of time and money. Regular monitoring is necessary to control the threats. There are different kinds of threats, some of the threats I talked in my blog are physical threat and logical threat. Physical threat consists of fire, water, energy, structural damage; pollution etc. and Logical threat consist of viruses, worms and intrusion.
Week 9, Risk Mitigation
On week 9 we learned about Risk mitigation. We learned about different risk handling procedures, feasibility analysis and recommended risk control practices. Risk mitigation is talking steps to reduce any adverse effects. Blog also talks about different ways to mitigate the risk. It is important to understand the risk and find a way to deal with it. Organization must take appropriate steps to reduce or eliminate the risks.
Week 10, why do we need Firewall?
We talked a lot about Information security, its policy and planning. How can we avoid our PC from viruses or hackers accessing information? Well having a strong firewall can help you this. When our PC is connected to internet, there is a high chances we leave our PC in a potential cyber threat. It is important we have strong firewall that will help prevent from malwares, Trojans that can infect your PC.
Week 11, How Important is IT Certification?
This week we talked about the IT certification. Since I am new in the industry, I thought it would be interesting to know about the certification and what it does. As I leaned, I thought about sharing on my blog as well since many of us will be graduating with no work experience. Certifications are very helpful for building the skills and provide competitive career advantage.
I used Internet as my primary source and few topics from text book. Although there were lots of information and text book can be reliable source, I still used Internet, as I could find lot more than what it was in internet. While taking a information from Internet, it is important to know which information is accurate. Also, your sources should be authentic.
Writing a blog every week was a great experience for me. I learned a lot while doing research for my blog. It is not only what I wrote, it is also learning experience from other blog. I think this blog can help other students for references for their research as well.
I thank our professor David McGaha to give us this opportunity. This was a wonderful learning opportunity.
