The Rise of BGP Hijacking and Why You Need a Response Plan Immediately

Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) Hijacking is one of the many famous attacks hackers deploy to interfere with content delivery networks (CDNs). Hackers may also be capable of interfering with cloud hosting providers. Recently, almost all major cloud service providers like Google, Amazon and GoDaddy have become victims of BGP Hijacking.

How does a BGP function?

Before getting into the depth of how BGP hijacking occurs, it is important to delve into BGP. BGP is essentially a routing protocol that can connect several networks. This congregation of networks is known as an Autonomous System (AS). A routing protocol is used to transfer information or data packets across several networks.

Typically, an AS consists of ISP providers, large tech enterprises, or in some cases, networks that belong to governments. Every AS receives a unique number responsible for controlling a specific set of IP ranges or spaces known as prefixes. Every AS displays the list of IP addresses they control and possible pathways to neighboring routers or Peers during data packet routing.

The information regarding the peers and the IPs in control are stored in routing tables and frequently change when new networks and shorter pathways appear.

The anatomy of a BGP hijacking

The primary consequence of BGP hijacking is that hackers can reroute information traveling through a network to different locations. They can do so using the following steps:

Route announcement

The first step is to send out an announcement of new BGP routes. This announcement will only be believable if it is announced by a legitimate AS. The bad actor will use a compromised AS to do so. The route announcement usually involves releasing a table of all the available prefixes or IP ranges. If all goes well, they will announce new BGP routes to their global network peers.

IP specificity

The IP addresses chosen for display are more specific in comparison to legitimate IP addresses. In most cases, hackers employ unused prefixes, or IP ranges present on real and legitimate AS networks. This can help to improve the chances of concealing the hackers' identity drastically.

The information pathway is only intercepted if the hackers can prove that the new route is shorter. The more efficient they show their network to be, the more information will be intercepted.

Crafting the right response plan

BGP hijacking is one of the more prevalent cyberattacks currently. In fact, in April 2018, attackers infiltrated Amazon Route 53. They then went on to reroute 1,300 addresses hoping to steal cryptocurrency. The hackers were able to avoid suspicion by acting as a cryptocurrency website known as MyEtherWallet.com. They subsequently stole around $150,000 in cryptocurrency from end-users. Therefore, companies, both big and small, require a response plan to incapacitate the attacker.

A typical incident response attack after a BGP hijacking takes place can be far from easy. This is because of how hackers can conceal themselves. However, in most cases, companies carry out a three-step incident response plan.

These steps include detection, containment and eradication. Of these, the containment step is especially challenging, given that route announcements can take place rapidly.

Preventing BGP hijacking

To prevent this cyberattack, companies will have to either rely on the measures put forward by their ISP or implement their security measures. The latter has to take place if the company owns the AS network.

Companies that depend on the security measures put forward by their ISPs will have to constantly contact the providers to ensure that the vulnerabilities within the network are eradicated.

In the second case, an organization should consider carrying out the following steps:

• Create a peering policy that can help peers to determine the legitimacy of the IP addresses. A company has a choice between an open peering policy and a selective one depending on its needs from its network.
• MANRS (Mutually Agreed Norms for Routing Security) is a collection of best practices organizations can utilize to protect their networks from BGP hijacking. Therefore, it is important to incorporate this in the security measures.
• Restrict the number of prefixes or IP ranges displayed by an AS network to limit the number of announcements being made.
• Implement authentication checkpoints through which an operator has to go through before accepting an announcement.

In addition to this, organizations also turn to route filtering, real-time BGP update checks and more to ensure that hackers cannot hijack the network. However, an automated response tool is the most impressive and accurate security measure that an organization can invest in. This tool will work as both a detector and mitigation tool to help prevent hijacking.

Although there has been a rise in cases of BGP hijacking in the past few years, organizations today are more equipped to handle it with the drastic enhancement of security options.

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Originally published at Entrepreneur

The Rise of BGP Hijacking and Why You Need a Response Plan Immediately

The primary consequence of this kind of attack is that hackers can reroute information to different locations.

Entrepreneur EuropeDeepak Gupta

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Future of Emails: Real or Masked Emails

Almost every activity on the Internet requires that you fill in your email to gain access as most of the websites you visit ask for your email addresses for different activities – from accessing a website to registering for a course or event to requesting a free download of digital products such as e-books.

Also, your email is linked to several online platforms that you use such as social networking platforms, music, and movie streaming platforms, e-learning platforms, and e-commerce platforms amongst others.

Basically, this is a strategy used mostly by brands offering digital products and services to build up their data banks and give them the opportunity to contact you. Most times, they go ahead to spam your inbox. Quite frustrating!

The more you give out your email address on the Internet, the more issues of data protection, leak, and abuse arise. This has made it necessary for individuals to take up the responsibility of protecting their data and at the same time protect themselves from cyber scams.

This summarises that your real email address is highly needed out there and if you care to keep your data private, step into the future. The future is a masked email.

Your email address exists on the internet just like your home address exists in the physical. It is where you can be reached and located. Once you make your email address public, anyone can pick it up and send you either solicited or unsolicited mail which could even result in spamming or getting into the hands of fraudsters.See your email address as your house address and protect it just the way you protect your homes with a proton wire fence from any form of intrusion.

What is a masked email?

To start with, your real email is your original email.

Masking an email is a process of making some changes to your real email either personal or business email address in a bid to protect your real information from being misused either intentionally or mistakenly. Email masking keeps your real email address private to protect sensitive data such as your names, credit card numbers, date of birth, house address, and other confidential details, safe from unwanted eyes.

Therefore, a masked email address is a type that keeps its original format yet can not be easily traced to the original address. Masking your email address can also help hide your email address such that it appears as a link which could be a clickable 'Email me' button for people to interact with rather than showing your email address plainly as you've designed or registered.

Why should you keep your email address private?

To better understand why you need to mask your email address and keep it private, it is pertinent to know and be able to identify the categories of people who are really interested in your real email address.

There are 4 categories of people who collate people's email addresses and find them interesting as it helps them promote their interests. These people are:

1. Marketers: Email marketing is one of the strategies to promote businesses. It helps business owners share updates about what they do using newsletters, upsell and cross-sell their products and/or services, share discounts and coupon codes to incite purchase and generally, create an avenue to establish relationships with their prospective and existing clients. Email masking, in this case, protects you from getting marketing and promotion emails from unsolicited and unwanted emails from businesses whose offer you are not interested in. Some marketers sell your email address to other online marketing companies that will also spam your inbox with their emails. Unsubscribing from such email lists could be done but could be daunting too. This makes email masking a better option.
2. Fraudsters/cybercriminals: Cybercriminals are interested in your real email address. They will try to log in to several platforms to access and steal more of your data especially if you are a celebrity or politician and they have very vital information that they want to get from your email. They will impersonate you and steal your identity, thereby destroying your reputation. Email masking comes in as a great option to keep your information.
3. Hackers: Once your email address is made public, hackers can get access to all the online platforms connected to your email.
4. Spammers: They could be cybercriminals or not. These categories of people just want you to get emails from them.

So, knowing that there are people interested in your email address, you can see that you have reasons to protect your email address. Highlighted below are some of the reasons you need to consider the option of masking your email address.

• Email is one of the least secure forms of communication on the web.
• Email address improves your privacy and ensures that your data on the internet is safe and hidden from unwanted internet users.
• Email masking reduces your risk of exposure to hackers, cybercriminals, and fraudsters.
• It prevents you from getting loads and loads of unwanted emails that will pile up in your mailbox and become nuisances.
• Furthermore, it helps you manage your email inbox and you don't have to deal with thousands and thousands of emails.
• If the site you sign up on using your email address gets hacked, no one will know your email address and any of your sensitive data.

How should you keep email addresses safe using a masked email?

To successfully mask your email address(es) and keep it(them) safe, you will need a third-party browser extension such as DuckDuckGo, Apple, Fastmail.

DuckDuckGo is a security and privacy ensuring platform that helps you keep your information to yourself. It gives you a special email address that you can use for sites that you don't trust and suspect that they would collect and use your data. They put their users on a waitlist and attend to them in batches. To get started;

• Sign up from the DuckDuckGo app here
• Install the app and go to Settings
• Go to Email Protection (you can join the waitlist)
• You will get your invite link, so, click on the link. This takes you through pages that explain what DuckDuckGo offers.
• Read the usual service terms and move on to get your unique DuckDuckGo email address which you will need to provide an email address where your masked email address would be sent to.
• Voila! You are good to go.

Apple supports email masking and it can be done in a few steps. iPhone and iPad users can go through these simple steps

• Launch the Settings app on your Apple devices.
• Click on your Apple ID name at the top of the main settings menu
• Click on iCloud
• Proceed to click on Hide My Email
• Click on Create new address
• Tap on Continue and label your address. You can decide to make a note on it or not
• Click on Next, then click on Done

PS: You can deactivate this right on iCloud too

Fastmail is another email masking platform that can be used. This can be done following the required step listed below.

• Sign up for a Fastmail account and set up 1Password in your browser
• Sign in to your account on 1Password
• Click integrations in the sidebar and choose Fastmail.
• Follow the instructions on the screen and connect both accounts

What should you do with your existing email that is already public?

Protect it! Yes, you need to protect it or take the risk of having your email address in the hands of hackers, scammers, and spammers.

How to protect your email

1. Reset your password to a very strong one using mixes of upper care and lower case letters as well as numbers and symbols.
2. Set up a two-factor authentication.
3. Be mindful and careful of public WiFi as hackers can offer fake hotspots to intrude on people's personal data.
4. Do not share your email address anyhow, anywhere, and with anybody.
5. Each time you log in on people's devices, be sure to log out once you are done.
6. Encrypt your email address

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Why Is Security a Stepping Stone to Technology-Driven Marketing Personalization?

A truly personalised consumer experience can only be provided when sufficient data is available to analyse consumer behaviour. Marketing today has become more personalised, contextualised, and dynamic. Acquiring data is the starting point—improved technology and algorithms have made it possible for companies to collect the same.

Companies work under the misconception that personalisation and privacy are conflicting efforts and do not believe that it can be interdependent. It is actually a positive-sum gain from cooperation. Research shows that 60% of consumers are frustrated with the brands’ inability to predict their needs and think they aren’t doing an adequate job using personalisation.

Companies find it challenging to optimise marketing personalisation with increasing privacy issues related to attaining granular consumer data. On the one hand, consumers are expecting to be recognised and their experiences personalised, on the other hand, consumers are concerned about data privacy.

With the implementation of privacy laws like General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and many browsers providing enhanced data privacy, it is clear that collecting consumer data has become difficult.

According to a recent Gartner survey, despite consumers having trust issues regarding usage of their data ethically, they are still willing to share information in exchange for convenience and personalised experiences. 63% of consumers expect to be recognised and want their experiences personalised. This has left marketers in a “catch-22” situation. Companies are stuck between the need for personalisation of data and consumers’ need to maintain data privacy.

Growing privacy concerns and predictions for this tech driven marketing landscape

With the increase in the number of data breaches, the data security market is expected to reach $38.23 billion by 2025 over the forecast period 2020 – 2025. Here are a few growing concerns and trends you need to know about.

1. Data security spending will increase.

Companies need to be transparent and prove their trustworthiness by highlighting their privacy policies. This is vital for building trust and accountability with their consumers. Data privacy is not possible without data protection.

As online threats continue to increase, cybersecurity spending across the globe is estimated to grow between $43.1 billion and $41.9 billion in 2020. Employees need to be regularly trained on data safety guidelines to ensure proper and ethical use of data.

2. Facial recognition raises privacy concerns.

Facial recognition technologies promise accurate identification. However, studies have shown that the technology is still vulnerable. Hence, accurate data generation and user recognition can be a challenge. An identity mismatch can lead to a security breach. If facial data gets compromised, hackers can easily copy identities and carry out illegal activities. Also, as facial recognition software generates a large amount of data, companies need to put ample security measures in place.

3. Protecting healthcare data from wearable technology.

Wearable technology provides patient data to healthcare providers to improve diagnosis or treatment. As most wearable technology is interconnected with mobiles or laptops, hackers can use wearable devices as a backdoor to get into the phone and view personal information. This is a major setback for data privacy.

4. Consumers will make businesses accountable.

Consumers are becoming more conscious about the amount of data being stored by companies, and are reluctant to share information due to privacy considerations. Around 72% of consumers have said that they would stop purchasing a company’s products or services due to privacy concerns. Also, 63% of consumers feel companies are responsible for protecting their data. They do not want companies that share personal data without their permission.

By prioritising a few key actions to improve security and privacy, organisations can overcome the privacy dilemma:

• Communicate and educate consumers on the link between personalisation and consumer data collection. Share privacy policies and practices, and assure consumers that their data will never be shared without their consent. Transparency is essential to gain the trust of consumers.
• Empower the consumers by giving them control over how and where their data is used. Let them decide what level of marketing personalisation they want.
• Companies need to train employees on ethical data use—what data can be acquired and stored while compliant with new laws and regulations.
• For creating an optimal consumer experience, consumer data should be acquired within the boundaries of defined privacy rules. Stakeholders should educate themselves on how consumer data can be used without violating privacy. This will lead to greater consumer trust and help generate business value for companies.
• Companies need to combine identity data with behavioural data to deliver personalised consumer experience. By collaborating with third-party data sources such as social media to collect data like demographics, interests and combining this with buying and browsing history, marketers get rich identity data that can be used to personalise marketing campaigns.
• Keep data use in context. While performing consumer analytics, companies should use only individual-level data needed to align the consumer experience, consumer preferences, requirements and interests.

Conclusion

Personalisation and privacy can go hand in hand. Digital trust by consumers is now a prerequisite for companies to gather information and provide a wholesome consumer experience. To overcome the ‘privacy paradox’, companies need to be aware of legislative requirements and adjust accordingly. For companies to practice good data security they need to invest in the technology that makes personalisation possible only under the realm of privacy laws.

By assuring consumers that their privacy comes first and respecting their concerns over the shared details, companies can offer a personalised experience and inspire consumer loyalty and satisfaction—in the long run.

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Originally published at Compare the Cloud

Why Is Security a Stepping Stone to Technology-Driven Marketing Personalisation?

A truly personalised consumer experience can only be provided when sufficient data is available to analyse consumer behaviour.

Compare the CloudDeepak Gupta

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Top 5 Tricks To Repel Cyber Criminals From Attacking Your Enterprise

Every transaction you make; every email you communicate—hackers are watching you.

Findings from the Arcserve report confirm that 70% of consumers do not trust businesseswith their personal information. They aren't much hopeful about corporate cybersecurity standards either and feel that organizations aren't doing much to win back their trust.

2020 has been one of the most dangerous periods in history for cybercrime. Whilst countries are still struggling to get past COVID-19, how do you ensure a cyber secure post-pandemic world with credibility?

Protecting against cybercrime is like preventing theft. You can’t just leave your doors open. At the same time, you can’t spend all of your time locked inside either.

There are a lot of other tricks businesses can impose to prevent theft and stay safe. Let’s hash them out.

Figure out your attack surface (and reduce it!).

You know what we say -‘preparation is 90% of the game’. If you don’t know your attack surface, how can you protect it?

An attack surface is any element that affects your information security. An employee’s behavior or even the products you use in everyday activities can be part of an organization’s attack surface.

There are two types of attack surface:

• Digital: They are digital points of attacks, like web services, networks, communication protocols, and domain names.
• Physical: They are tangible areas of assaults, like building windows, manufacturing facilities, or even a fire.

Because these two attack surfaces overlap, it's critical to protect them both. General advice is:

• To delete, or shred anything that is no longer in use.
• To follow the principle of least privilege.
• To monitor network and logs at regular intervals.
• To get rid of Shadow IT elements- devices and tools that employees use without the approval of your IT department.

Build a culture of resilience.

With business leaders focusing on the bottom line and cybersecurity professionals focusing on security, trust between the two groups remains a major source of stress. To put it bluntly, you need to knock down the walls between these two disciplines.

It’s important for technology professionals to remind C-suite why tiered approaches to cybersecurity have an increased return on investment, as well as how the company can become more secure with their spending in this area. No! The budget cannot expand and contract based on whether or not the organization has lately experienced a breach.

Technologists need to explain what they are doing, why they are doing it, and how well they plan to do it. Cybersecurity must be viewed as a long-term investment and business and IT experts must collaborate to handle the trade-offs.

Approach cybersecurity as a risk management issue.

Cyber risk is no longer an issue only for the IT team. Risk management professionals need to have the knowledge and tools necessary to assess and plan against cybercriminals.

It takes a well-trained security expert to protect against the most sophisticated attacks; however, companies can self-govern by becoming aware of common security mistakes. For example, scenario exercises help your team to visualize different kinds of attacks and understand the weaknesses in your system.

Identify your “Crown Jewels” and prioritize their protection.

If you’re hacked, which data do you want to protect most? Should you make sure your financial data is safe or is it your clients’ names that are worth the most?

The truth is, no matter what you do, there will be vulnerabilities. You need to identify your “crown jewels” and come up with a plan to safeguard them.

So, what are these crown jewels? These are the most valuable and confidential data for your organization. For example:

• Data assets, such as the information in your CRM database
• Personal information, such as the names and addresses of employees
• Documents that are crucial to your business operation, such as strategic plans and agreements
• Product designs and technical specifications that are subject to intellectual property (IP) restrictions

Address the human element of cyberthreat

When it comes to insider threats, companies and organizations face a wide range of attack vectors. Employees, contractors, and vendors all have the potential to take part in malicious activities that pose a threat to the organization’s data.

Is your security program acting as a “human firewall” to protect your organization from insider threats? Most companies are aware of the problem, but few treat it as a priority.

It’s important to make sure all employees have a clear understanding of what’s at stake in terms of security and why it’s important for them to follow security policies.

Running the Risk of Cyberattack Is Simply Too Big a Gamble

Turning the tide on cyber risk requires a different kind of cybersecurity leadership—one that can give security leaders real power. With billions of new entry points to defend, you need to create a robust architecture that empowers your core team to oversee all security operations across your organization.

By bridging the historical responsibility gap among information security, business continuity, and crisis management, you can minimize duplication of processes and introduce maximum cyber hygiene.

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Originally published at Value Walk

Top 5 Tricks To Repel Cyber Criminals From Attacking Your Enterprise – ValueWalk

Every transaction you make; every email you communicate—hackers are watching you.

ValueWalkDeepak Gupta

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The CTO’s view of a changing world

The IT industry has come to the forefront as homes have been transformed into workspaces due to Covid-19 lockdowns.

The skyrocketing need for digitalisation has kept revenue flowing in for tech businesses. Common sense would say that as the source for upgrades, IT players would be at the top of their game when it comes to meeting problem areas. But let’s have a look at how these sectors are actually faring.

In data and telecoms, there are issues with cash flow, as traditional revenue segments suffer. However, with large swathes of the population in isolation, Internet usage has shot up.

This change in consumer behaviour has bolstered revenue opportunities for telecom companies. However, increased Internet use has also created pressure on existing network infrastructure, causing dips in connection rates and call quality (both audio and video). To be able to serve new users without overloading servers, apps may temporarily disable certain features.

For example, Google Pay had briefly turned off its Check Balance feature to reduce processing times on its app after an influx of new users.

In technology, market research firm Forrester found that the growth of the tech industry in the United States—and across the world—might slow down to around 2% in 2020. And unfortunately, that’s the best-case scenario.

Lowered factory production and travel restrictions have affected the manufacturing and distribution of device components.

However, things are looking green for tech companies that sell products and services essential for remote working. Laptops, personal computers, routers, and other network equipment have seen sustained sales, benefitting companies such as Dell Technologies, which saw a 6% growth in revenues from its Client Solutions Group, which includes desktop PCs, notebooks, and tablets, in the fiscal first quarter of 2020.

That’s good news. Now, the bad: according to McAfee, external threats on cloud accounts spiked a whopping 630% between January and April 2020. This highlights the highly risky environments businesses are wading through and their increased susceptibility to cyber risks.

Most employees are using unsecured personal devices to access enterprise networks. They are also using shadow IT techniques to quickly complete tasks. This could potentially open organisations up to security gaps and losses in data visibility.

To effectively manage this tricky scenario—and not compromise on productivity—CTOs must get deeply involved in every step of the business hierarchy.

The onset of the Coronavirus pandemic has accelerated the pace of digitalisation and has further strengthened the need for the CTOs to not only manage their company’s technology arsenal but take a pragmatic approach to understand the nature and flow of data and implement innovative solutions to manage the integrity and security of data, without hindering the usual business.

The International Data Corporation forecasts that global IT spending will drop 2.7% in 2020 due to Covid-19 and the resulting recession. Naturally, this calls for stronger coordination between CTOs and upper management for making more informed IT investments.

In the post-Covid era, businesses must phase out unsustainable practices if they are to maintain revenue growth. Going forward, companies are projected to continue with the work-from-home model, with major names like Facebook, Twitter, and Shopify already looking at making permanent work-from-home arrangements for a greater chunk of their workforce.

Companies worried about productivity may find some solace after going through a report by research firm Valoir that indicates that the abrupt move to remote working due to the coronavirus pandemic caused only a 1% reduction in productivity.

To ensure consistent and uninterrupted remote operations, CTOs will need to widen their vision and devise an operational playbook. Studying changes at technological, community, economic, and geopolitical levels will allow them to refine company infrastructure as needed.

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Originally published at Capacity

The CTO’s view of a changing world

As their roles broaden, CTOs will increasingly be called upon to keep ahead of community, economic, and geopolitical changes, as well as the technical. Deepak Gupta, CTO.

Deepak Gupta, CTO and co-founder

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Passwords: Are Words Better Than Random Letters?

Creating and managing strong passwords is a fundamental key for internet security, but remains a challenging task for many users who cannot break their bad habits of recycling the same password for multiple accounts. Because of these poor password security practices, attackers exploit them compromising personal and organizational security, which leads to more data breaches and cyber-attacks that continue on the rise. I created a list of password security measures to prevent this.

Adopting the strategies below can enhance password security and should be considered for improving personal and organizational cybersecurity.

What are some words people should use or avoid?

Words that people should use for generating their passwords are:

• A password must contain upper case letters i.e. letters from A-Z.
• Password should also contain a lowercase letter (a-z)
• Numbers from 0-9 should also be part of the password.
• People should use symbols like ~`! @#$%^&*()_-+={[}]|\:;"'<,>.?/ while generating their password.
• Users should use pronounceable syllables to make up words that are easy to remember and are difficult to guess.
• Substitute lowercase or uppercase letters with special characters such as replace s with $ or 1, I or! For I etc. Some of the Other substitutions of letters with special characters that need to be considered are:
• @ or A for a
• 7 or T for t
• 3 or E for e
• 9, G or 6 for g
• 0 or O for o
• 8 or B for b
• Replace codes or words with other words e.g. insert numerals between original words.

Words that people should avoid while generating passwords:

• Avoid using simple dictionary words because such passwords are easily guessed, and are vulnerable to dictionary-based and brute force attacks. For example do not use your name, pet name, or simple words such as dog, cat, football, etc.
• Avoid using your name, account name, organization name, technical jargon, common names of people, places, network names, etc.
• Make sure that your password is not related to your personal information such as your name, family member’s name, your social security number, birthday, etc.
• Do not use words that are easily guessed such as using ‘’password’’ or ‘’user123’’.
• Users should avoid using password combinations of keyboard keys such as ‘’asdfghhjk’’, ‘’QWERTY’’, or ‘’123445678’’ as they are easily crackable.
• Never use the password you have picked for your email account.

What's the best way to create a password?

The secret behind creating a password is that it should be unique and easy to remember, which means that a password must be hard to crack and memorable. Below are some strategies used by cybersecurity experts to create strong passwords, which are hard to crack and are easily remembered by its users.

• Create a long password containing a minimum number of 12 characters i.e. your password must be at least 12 characters long. Most cybersecurity experts prefer to create passwords that have more than twelve characters. The longer the password, the more secure it will be.
• One of the best ways to create a password is to add variety to the password‘s string i.e. your password should contain capital and small letters, symbols, and special characters. This will make it harder for the attackers to crack it using a dictionary and brute-force attacks.
• Avoid using sequential letters or words that are commonly used. Avoid using information that contains your personal information such as name, pet name, date of birth, etc.
• Avoid using sequential keystrokes of keyboards.
• Use the "revise a paraphrase method" while creating your password. Use common and bizarre words such as historical names or words you know in foreign languages. Add random characters in the middle of the password paraphrase.
• Use the sentence method also known as the "Bruce Schneier Method" for generating your passwords. In this method, a random sentence is used to create a password by using simple rules. For example, take your favorite sentence and use the last two letters of each word used in the sentence. But make sure that the sentence that you use is personal and cannot be guessed.
• Storing passwords on your PCs or email will put your password security at risk.  Use professional and registered password managers to create, manage, and store all of your personal and business accounts’ passwords.
• Another best approach while creating a password is to always use a unique password for each account and never reuse any of them. This is because if malicious actors guess the password of one of your accounts, they will not be able to compromise your other accounts if they try to access them. But if the user reuses a password for all of their business or email accounts, chances are high that cybercriminals will use that single password to compromise all of the user’s accounts.
• Another way to enhance the security of your account is to use two-factor authentication which prevents cybercriminals from accessing your account, even if your password is stolen. Two-factor authentication is a security protocol other than passwords that ensures user identity before a user logs into his/her account.

Why are words better than random letters for passwords?

A user must generate a password that is strong, difficult to guess, and easy to remember because passwords are like keys to your account. Cybersecurity experts prefer words or paraphrases instead of using random letters for passwords because randomly generated passwords are difficult to remember, and there is a high probability that users will not be able to remember them for a long time. This means that the user will record it either offline or online. Storing a password either online or offline will make it vulnerable to theft, loss, or destruction.

This means that the use of random letters for a password will enhance password security by making it difficult for malicious actors to guess it. On the other hand, it will also make the password vulnerable to theft, destruction or loss if the user records it either offline or online.

Summary

Password security is imperative to prevent malicious actors from accessing users' or organizations' accounts which can become compromised for nefarious purposes. By implementing strong password security measures, nightmare scenarios can become prevented. One of those measures is especially critical for users and organizations to practice: do not reuse the same password for any of your accounts. The good news is, many of them are simple and easy-to-follow.

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Originally published at SecJuice

Passwords: Are Words Better Than Random Letters?

These good password strategies can enhance your bad password security habits.

SecjuiceDeepak Gupta

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6 Reasons Why No-Code Platforms are the Future Of Software Development

If you want to develop an app or software but have no experience in coding and do not know how to find someone who does. What do you do? In such a case, no-code platforms are your best option.

No-code platforms provide users with quick and easy solutions to develop and grow their apps or software. It gives programmers and non-programmers equal opportunity to build a new product and launch it to the market.

What is a No-Code Platform

A no-code platform provides services that cater to the needs and demands of people from the business or innovation markets who do not have experience in using a programming language. Using a no-code platform, a person can easily create their applications without any technical glitches.

One uses a visual development environment in a no-code platform. The developers input the resources while keeping in mind what looks visually pleasing according to the business.

Reasons to Choose No-Code Platforms

No-code platforms are becoming the future of software and app development. Here are six reasons why you should use a no-code platform if you are looking to build an app or software.

1. It lets you utilize your internal resources.

By using a no-code platform,  you eliminate the chances of over-complicating the software or application. Due to the simple parameters of the no-code platform, a company can make its products without employing external developers. It eliminates the risks of being restrictive or limiting the input, which may occur due to overcomplicating the code.

Using no-code platforms, a company can assign individuals who don't have extensive knowledge of coding and developing, to evolve a product. A start-up can design their app or software in a no-code platform and conveniently utilize all their resources.

2. It is cost-efficient

Unlike the past, where you might have to employ a developer externally or do the coding yourself or even employ people for their coding skills, a no-code platform saves you a lot of trouble. Using the old methods requires a lot of funds, even with its limitations.

The no-code platform prevents expenses like specialised contractors and additional recruitment costs while generating higher revenue with its fast development. It also reduces the cost of ownership by eliminating the exorbitant charges of servers, maintenance and server buildings. As the no-code platform data is stored in a secure cloud network, one only has to pay for the software application in use.

3. It offers faster development

The best advantage of a no-code platform, according to start-ups, is the speed of development of a software or app. On average a software takes up to 4- 6 months to develop. If the file is heavier, it might take even more time. By using a no-code platform, one can reduce the time consumption from months to weeks.

Creating prototypes to invite investors and prospectors is also made cheaper and faster by the no-code platform. The simplicity of the user interface makes it easy even for a first-time user to develop apps and software.

4. It offers a better user experience

By reducing the complications of coding, a company can make the user experience their objective. As a no-code platform uses a visual development environment, the apps and software are developed using user experience designs (UX designs). These designs focus on the consumers' requirements and help make the app or software easy to navigate for new users.

Using a no-code platform also helps the company focus more on the sales and marketing sectors of the company.

5. It can be easily redesigned and updated

Coding makes redesigning and updating an app or software slow and complicated, especially if you do not have access to the app's backend. Whereas in a no-code platform, you do not have to worry about such issues.

Using a no-code platform provides you with a lot of room to make changes and customize the apps or software according to your requirements. You do not have to worry about bugs entering your framework or gaps in commands. Updating the software and applications becomes easier and less time-consuming in a no-code platform.

6. It makes for a reliable business experience

No-code platforms help in generating higher income, getting investors, and empowering a business. Your business becomes self-sufficient as it does not have to employ external developers or specialists for every change or update to the app or software. Even your non-technical team can easily make most of the updates.

As the speed of development increases because of the no-code platform, revenue generation increases. You can focus more on your user experiences due to the ease and cost-efficiency of the no-code platform. With better experience, you can also find higher bids from investors.

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Originally published at HackerNoon

6 Reasons Why No-Code Platforms are the Future Of Software Development | Hacker Noon

The next generation of no-code platforms will be a key force in transforming everything about software development.

Hackernoon logoDeepak Gupta

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