Women in technology is a force to recon with, as it is one of the most gender-neutral industries on a global scale. This has been the message echoed in the recently concluded League of Women Voters, an unofficial event on how women in IT can help people maintain IT security.
“There are times when I get some very strange e-mails from places, like banks I’ve never had an account at. Now your technology is with you all the time and I’m not always sure that’s a good thing. I think it leaves people to be very vulnerable,” explained Faye Marcus, one of the participants in the event.
There is a pressing need to help educate the casual computer users, in order to lessen the chances of them falling for online scams, virus infection and identity theft. This is through the exposure of these users to safe computing habits, especially those that are often online with their smartphones.
“A lot of people who don’t understand technology shy away from it. They’re made victims of phishing scams, hackers, malware, ransomware. It happens at work as much as it happens at home. Back then it was just AOL. Now, it is literally everything. Personal and business security is national security. If you want to think about it patriotically, let’s all be safe. The way to do that collectively is to make sure our emails, our routers, our connection to the internet is protected.” emphasized Janie Wilson-Cook, a member of League of Women Voters.
These comments are confirmed by a Kevin Swam, IT Director of College of Medicine in Rockford. “You can connect to the internet and all the machines all connect together almost seamlessly. There are a lot more opportunities for people to do things they shouldn’t,” concluded Swam.
Cybercriminals do not discriminate anyone; they are motivated by profit. They mostly focus on easy targets, like the healthcare sector. The WannaCry ransomware pandemic of 2017 net the virus authors a profit of $4 billion from ransom payments.
