Today’s digital landscapes are expansive, and the technologies which run them are incredibly complex. As the Internet evolves, digital threats are increasing as well. For businesses and individual Internet-goers alike, there are plenty of pitfalls to be concerned about. Today’s online world is packed with viruses, malicious links, and trojans.

Meanwhile, businesses face more cybersecurity breaches than ever: A single click, if it’s the wrong one, can cost a commercial establishment millions in lost data.

The Big Picture

It’s tough to pin down the many intricacies which create and define our modern digital experiences, but it’s still possible to glean insights. The fact of the matter is, we don’t know everything there is to know about cybersecurity. There are simply too many components to comprehend adequately. Similarly, we can create digital strategies to avoid ransomware—but companies still face considerable security problems. 

In both cases, one truth seems to prevail; however, knowledge is needed to increase one’s cyber-defenses regardless of the digital tools they use. Poor digital defense strategies, over time, can significantly reduce one’s networking capabilities in best-case scenarios. In worst-case scenarios, forgetting to log out of any given website can result in data theft.

To make the most out of your own digital sessions, check out the following ‘core truths’ about today’s digital experiences. They’re important to understand for practical application—but they’re also capable of dispelling preconceptions about today’s world of cybersecurity itself. 

Let’s check out these truths:

One: Mobile Phones Can Compromise Businesses

Many assume smartphones to be ironclad digitally. Unfortunately, this isn’t the case: They’re vulnerable to cyberthreats, just like regular computers. They do tend to be much more resilient to cyberattacks, certainly, but they’re still limited by the current digital technologies they’re run with. It isn’t uncommon to see attacks against smartphones via digital wallet apps. This said, learning which smartphone wallet apps to use ahead of time is a great way to learn more about these types of apps. And the more you learn about them, the safer you’ll be. 

More companies are turning to smartphones to manage in-house operations, too. Because of this, smartphones have become a new endpoint for hackers to target. Without applying the right cybersecurity measures within a business’s networking design, a single device can put the entire company at risk—quickly so.

Two: Emails are Still Dangerous

For many of us, emails used to be places of primary concern for potential hackers. Even though modern email software is far safer, phishing attacks via email still occur. In fact, commercial security measures that don’t properly implement email security frequently face phishing attacks.

Phishing emails themselves are big targets because they contain a company’s valuable information. By uploading malware into an organization’s network, a malicious user can further compromise any system. In doing so, they can acquire enough information to launch digital ransom assaults.

Three: The Internet of Things Has Security Issues

It’s always tough to remember the Internet of Things, or IoT, as it spans across the many things we use in day-to-day life. Unfortunately, any device with an Internet connection can be compromised. Seeing as the near future seems to be leaning towards more IoT implementations, we’ll likely see even more threats attempting to exploit them. The IoT, after all, continuously seeks deeper, comprehensive connections. And the more connected a network is, the harder it falls.

Four: You Need Antivirus Software

Antivirus software suites protect users against most of today’s digital threats, spanning from malware to extended botnet attacks. Even though the antivirus technologies our devices arrive with are quite powerful, they still don’t cover every base. For this reason, we need to be proactive about the way we engage the Internet in general. Ransomware continues to be one of the biggest threats of all, as it’s incredibly difficult to identify before engaging it is unavoidable.

Five: You Need a VPN

Virtual Private Networks, or VPNs, have quickly become the new standard for comprehensive device security. Rerouting a device user’s IP address through nonlocal servers can effectively ‘cloak’ such devices before they encounter threats. Not only do they have numerous servers around the globe to choose from—but they also offer some of the most powerful encryption tools around. It’s pretty easy to start using a VPN for yourself, too. 

Safe Web-Surfing in 2021

When it comes to protecting vital information, the data powering said information must never be compromised. To equip the tools you can, like antivirus software suits and an industry-leading VPN. These tools are much more affordable than they used to be. And the level of protection they offer, these days, is the most significant.

Currently, biometrics remains to be the strongest strategy for verifying personal identity and authenticity. Instead of relying on details that can be easily memorized, such as tokens or passwords, a person is verified by his or her unique physical features. You can read more about biometrics here.

While the idea of biometrics seems to be a fairly complex solution to a simple problem, it solves the common vulnerabilities and issues that exist on common authentication methods like passwords. Biometrics rely on inherently immutable pieces of information about a person.

Advantages of biometrics:

Let’s take a closer look at some prominent advantages of the technology.

Integrity and Non-Repudiation

Textual or numerical pieces of information like passwords or two-factor tokens can easily be memorized by anyone. If a user is operating in a compromised network, attackers can potentially extract them by keylogging, session hijacking, or intercepting traffic.

However, biometrics rely on a person’s physiological features, which are very difficult to replicate and falsify. This ensures that the original person is always present in the verification process.

Improves User Experience

Combined with the security benefits of biometric systems, they also improve the overall user experience. Even if the entire verification process seems complex under the hood, users find it quick and easy to get themselves verified simply by their own presence.

Another reason for the adoption of biometric systems is due to their inclusivity. Anyone can benefit from it, including older adults and individuals who are not highly familiar with the technology.

Disadvantages of biometrics:

However, the idea leads to a certain problem. Even if a system attempts to verify a person’s identity with a very high level of integrity, this strategy is only as secure and effective as the system that implements it.

Tradeoffs of Immutability

Because biometrics will require very specific details about a person, a compromised system that implements biometrics can potentially expose even more sensitive information. 

Because of biometric information’s immutability, there are only very few ways a person can protect himself or herself once the information has been stolen by an attacker.

Easy to Break if Not Well-Implemented

While the difficulty of replicating the specific information about a person’s eyes seems impossible, even sophisticated identity verification systems are only as secure as the device which implements it.

If iris recognition systems are also not well-implemented, anyone can break it by simply having access to a person’s personal picture. In 2017, a group called Chaos Computer Clubs (CCC) managed to fool the Samsung Galaxy S8’s iris recognition system with a dummy eye.

State of Biometrics

While the disadvantages seem to be a sufficient basis to deem biometrics as unreliable, it is still considered as the standard way of verifying personal identity in 2020, and the biometrics market is still expected to grow even further in 2021. This includes the wide adoption of e-passports.

The reason for this growth is due to large and continuous efforts to make biometric systems reliable by implementing end-to-end security. For many institutions, cities, and large businesses, biometrics speed up logistics, and they provide security, reliability, and convenience in a single package.

To see how the state of biometrics may grow in 2021, we need to look at the research, innovations, and progress in the technology within 2020.

AI and Deep Learning Integration

We also see consistent efforts in making biometric systems more and more sophisticated in 2020. For instance, companies in India are attempting to supplement biometric cameras with deep learning algorithms for video surveillance.

Some researchers are also trying to improve the system by combining information about multiple physiological traits (multimodal biometrics) with the assistance of convolutional neural networks, a type of neural network that is commonly applied in object recognition.

Gait Analysis

There is also continuous progress in other strategies, such as gait analysis. In gait analysis, a person is verified according to his or her locomotion. In other words, each person is distinguished by the way they walk.

While gait analysis seems to be only applicable in the context of city-wide surveillance, we are also currently seeing its adoption on the consumer-end. 

Fingerprint Analysis

However, COVID-19 Pandemic has a severe impact on the fingerprint recognition systems market. The sales in the global market fell down significantly by 22%.

This decrease is aided by the slow transition of businesses and the public sector towards contactless biometric systems. Despite all this, the fingerprint market is still projected to recover by 2021 and grow significantly by 2025.

Conclusion

While the perfections of biometric systems come with certain disadvantages and flaws, biometric systems are still here to stay, and we still see continuous developments in the technology in 2020. 

The market is still expected to grow by 2021, especially due to the slowly growing adoption of contactless biometric systems. They are highly crucial for many industries to stay in momentum, and there are consistent efforts and researches being made to make it as secure as possible.