Need accountability, awareness on online threats: Cyber security expert Merike Kaeo

HYDERABAD: Following her interaction with state government officials, police and academicians in the city over the last few days, US-based cyber security expert Merike Kaeo on Friday opined that Hyderabadis were very aware about cyber security. In the city on behalf of the US Government, Kaeo who is currently the CEO of Double Shot Security, said, “During my interaction at Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (CDAC), Centre of Excellence managed by the State Government and other places, I found that everyone was very aware about the cyber security space. People here have the same challenges as anyone anywhere would have. They are not lagging behind.”

Stressing on increasing personal accountability and awareness for decreasing cyber threats and attacks, Kaeo suggested a three-pronged approach for the same. “First, instead of passwords, people should have passphrases coupled with two-factor authentication. This should be the way until, there is technology available which would render passwords redundant.”

A passphrase is a sequence of words/sentences, symbols or numbers separated by spaces. It is similar to passwords, but generally longer for added security. “Second, every device should be protected through cryptographic network protocol,” she said. Kaeo cited the example of Mirai malware which targetted systems that run telnet. “People should use Secure Shell (SSH) — a cryptographic network protocol.”

Lastly,  she urged everyone to upgrade their firmwares to the latest version because they contain security updates and tweaks which would protect the device from threats. Kaeo also said that India’s data protection law should have a balance between accountability and privacy, since privacy is a fundamental right in the country.