Online Information Safety On University Student Assignment

Online Safety on University Students
Name:
Institution:
Date of submission
Online Safety on University Students
So you think your information is safe from physical attack by using cloud computing as a student? Perhaps, but, have a second thought. Your information is no longer kept private as you might think. In fact, you are a potential victim of hackers, bullies, and impersonation. Many online users especially students who use social media, conduct online shopping and hostel booking as well as engaging in online banking are falling victims of identity crime. These students are neither signing up to the numerous scams nor being careless by not logging out their accounts. In most cases, they only participate in sending emails, online shopping and conduct internet banking. Therefore, it is not surprising when they receive a bank account statement indicating a unique financial transaction or threats as well as their information being held at ransom. However, students who are internet users can still have their information kept safe on a cloud when they understand the procedures used by hackers to access their information, understanding the degree of damage caused by hackers and impersonators and knowing the relevant actions when dealing with such incidences.
At any moment a student uses the internet, he is vulnerable to hacking, bullying, and impersonation by hackers. Most hackers use phishing malware, spam email, bogus websites and instant messages to access a computer hence comprise the confidential information hence putting the victim at risk of exposure (De Looper, 2016). Besides, users who are not protected by firewalls easily fall victims to hackers who access their private information directly. Furthermore, the hackers can monitor all the details in chat rooms, social sites and even engage in conversation with the victim as well as use the victim's web page (De Looper, 2016). Thus, the students' identification information, health, and financial records are not safe.
In most cases, the hackers typically use fake identities and lure students especially those in social media groups or students who are from well backgrounds. The hackers attract such students to reveal their sensitive information especially, financial records, health records, email addresses, and passwords. On the same note, hackers with sophisticated skills write programs that access information to find the keys required to log into the students' accounts (De Looper, 2016). Checker scripts typically find good use by such hackers especially those designed to test batches of the usernames and password combinations on websites most visited by students to identify a valid account. Thus, they are searching for information that is repeatedly used in different accounts owned by one student. For example, answers to questions regarding pet names, or any other statement regarding security detail are usually repeated by such students in different accounts. Such information can be manipulated to access all the accounts. Another example of how hackers access students' data is the use of keylogger which is a malware that tracks all the information that is typed and sends the information to the hacker who has the malware code (De Looper, 2016). Therefore, the safe...