Are We Designing Cybersecurity to Protect People from Malicious Actors?

Abstract

When the discussion about engaging people to take an active approach to cybersecurity there is a focus on ensuring they protect their devices from malware and controlling access to their devices. There is a lesser focus on providing education and awareness to identify potential attacks from malicious actors. At the moment technology and software companies focus on protecting devices and not the people directly. This is due to a need to protect data from malware and unauthorised access. The conversation surrounding cybersecurity and data protection has come to the fore again due to the EU General Data Protection Regulation 2016/679 (GDPR) and hardware design flaws that include Intel Spectre bug. This paper will look at four areas the first is basic phishing attack along with malware and ransomware. The second area is compromised devices that includes cryptojacking and distributed denial of service attacks (DDOS). The third area is swatting attacks looking at experiences in America and Europe. Which include privacy protection, spoofing and fraud. The fourth area is the problem of online sextortion and revenge porn. Which includes entrapment, grooming, limited education and awareness. A gap analysis will examine what is being done in cybersecurity in these areas and what needs to be done to provide better cybersecurity in these areas in order to achieve better cybersecurity protection for people from malicious actors. Finally, the questions of are we designing cybersecurity to protect people from malicious actors will be answered.