What Are Cyber Threats

We often speak of malware or “malicious software”: spam, viruses, Trojan horses, ransomware, phishing attacks, etc. If viruses are less publicized today thanks to the generalization of anti-virus software on workstations, phishing attacks are now the most feared. Because they will seek to deceive end users through infected links hidden in “real-life” emails, for example, a user will receive an email that looks like a message from his bank, perhaps even after he has connected to it, asking him to update his information, which a hacker will recover. If the computer is infected, the organization’s entire network is likely to be infected within minutes! Some sectors are particularly affected, such as health, for example.

Web Filtering, Therefore, Remains An Essential Point Of The Cybersecurity Strategy

Internet filtering is essential to ensure web security via two key tools: the Proxy and the Firewall. Combining the two tools is crucial to forming a secure web gateway between users and the Internet. The Firewall will ensure incoming/outgoing access authorizations.

At the same time, the Proxy will take care of all the filtering operations either via allowlists to authorize known sites or via blocklists which will block access to dangerous sites. Safelisting only allowing sites validated as safe is arguably the best way to protect against cyber threats. The blocklist will ban specific hazardous sites but will not be able to know them all, so it can let the user navigate to the short URL of a Phishing attack, for example.

These two tools are also essential because they make it possible to limit the vulnerability resulting from security flaws in the operating systems. Even if publishers regularly publish fixes, patches or other codes correcting security vulnerabilities, it is important not to wait for these patches because, in the event of a zero-day attack for which the patch is not yet known, the network computer could be exposed: the combination of Proxy and Firewall is the correct answer.

Proxy And Firewall The Two Essential Web Security Tools

Firewalls and Proxies have evolved rapidly in recent years to deal with increasingly sophisticated attacks, and some malware even embeds artificial intelligence to adapt to end-user behavior. The important thing is to make the two tools work well together and not try to use only one of the 2, diverting it from its primary function. The Firewall remains the barrier to managing the inputs/outputs on the computer network. Still, the Proxy will ensure all the filtering operations between the Internet and the local network to allow employees to navigate optimal security conditions.

patches or other codes correcting security vulnerabilities, it is important not to wait for these patches because, in the event of a zero-day attack for which the patch is not yet known, the network computer could be exposed: the combination of Proxy and Firewall is the correct answer.

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What Is Digital Ethics

We could say that digital ethics is the necessary social code to solve the problems that Internet use is causing; We understand these problems as intellectual property rights, cyberattacks on security, limits on freedom of expression, regulation of large corporations, digital disconnection, conduct on social networks and the privacy of our data.

Once 40 business leaders signed a Digital Declaration establishing a series of principles on which to build digital ethics, a concept that, like ICTs, is destined to grow and develop at the same time as these, to offer an answer to the problems that arise from them. These principles include:

• Participation: The development of digital skills is an integral part of the education of every citizen anywhere in the world.
• Dynamic Digital Society: Digital products and services must continue to develop and bring benefits to society.
• Data And Privacy: Respect for the privacy of citizens must be ensured through responsible, safe, and transparent handling of their data.
• Cybersecurity: You must cooperate to reduce cyber threats and strengthen the security of people in the digital environment.
• Dialogue Cooperation: Stakeholders from any place and sector must dialogue and collaborate to further develop the digital future.

In short, digital ethics has several actors, on the one hand, user ethics, on the other the corporate ethics, and the ethics of applied technology. But, also, it is important to understand that ethics does not depend on software, but on the people behind it; If the programmer of an algorithm already does so with some bias the algorithm will be biased.

Digital Ethics And Privacy On The Internet

With the development of the Internet of Things (IoT), Artificial Intelligence (AI), social networks or Big Data, privacy on the Internet has become one of the most important issues, both for governments and official institutions and for private corporations and citizens themselves in their role as users. The latter are increasingly concerned about the privacy of their data; who collects them, for what and if they are protected.

The General Data Protection Regulation (RGPD) is one of those measures taken by the institutions, in this case, those of the European Union, to create a legal framework in which citizens are better informed about what happens to their data when giving their consent so that they can be processed by a third party, in addition to giving them a series of rights that they can exercise over them, known as ARCO rights (access, rectification, cancellation, opposition, to which limitation and portability were added).

But currently, when it comes to digital ethics and privacy, there is still a long way to go, especially for corporations and the business world, which are the ones who are exploiting new technologies to achieve more benefits, as is the case with the use of Big Data in decision making.

Thus, Big Data has been used to know the profiles of consumers and predict their behavior, violating the privacy of users, whose data could, until recently, be generated, transferred and analyzed without their knowledge or approval. The risk increases when we think about data related to health, preferences, decisions or contacts, monitoring of social networks for security-related purposes, etc. All of this can lead to unethical practices, such as profiling, monitoring, discrimination, exclusion, government oversight, and loss of control.

This from companies, but there are also ethical risks in the digital behavior of citizens regarding privacy, such as when a private video is shared in a WhatsApp group that may violate the privacy of one or more people.

Does Technological Ethics Influence Business Management

Ethics and technology or what is right and what is not when we talk about the uses of technology ? is a topic that has been debated for a time at the business level, the consulting firm Gartner placed digital ethics and privacy as one of the 10 trends technology in 2020. Corporations have begun to become aware of the importance of establishing a series of ethical principles when using technological advances.

Companies are aware of the ethical challenges that future development of AI and the use of data will or will pose in different disciplines, for example, those related to health. The president of Samsung, Young Sohn, already expressed in an interview with Bussines Insider the possibility that in the future (not too far away) DNA information could be collected, analyzed and classified for the sake of scientific research, acknowledging his concern regarding the ethical implications that the use of this type of tools could have, underlining the need that they should be guided by principles and be used with clear purposes and not with the sole objective of profiting.

Conclusions

In conclusion, digital ethics and technological privacy are fields to which different actors must contribute, from institutions, through corporations, to citizens themselves and trying to ensure that the development of ethical principles for the digital world succeeds in putting themselves at the par than technological development, especially when laws lag so far behind (let’s think that Google started rolling in 1998, collecting our data for decades without any control, until the arrival of data protection laws and, especially the GDPR in 2018, 20 years later than the creation of the computer giant).

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