Protecting Yourself, Your Business and Your Family

• August
• 19

8:17 pm Cyber Security

Our guest today on the CHW show was Ben Wilson, Esq., founder and principal consultant for Xcera Consulting. He is also Co-Vice Chair of the American Bar Association’s Information Security Committee.

Ben’s work primarily focuses on computer and e-commerce consulting as well as digital forensics. He is the father of an 11-year-old son and a 14-year-old daughter, both of whom give Ben a keen sense responsibility in protecting individuals, including children, from the dangers of cyber corruption. Listen to the interview here:

Since Ben has devoted much of his career to cyber law and protecting people from internet corruption, he has developed a strong affinity for defending some of the internet’s most vulnerable targets: children. Bottom line, parents must be responsible for identifying threats and steering their children away from websites that could cause them harm. While dialogue is important, parents may also wish to invest in software, such as Pandora PC, that will trace or report suspicious internet behavior.

Unfortunately, most everyone is naturally programmed to trust one another, a trait that internet schemers love to prey on. People, especially young people should always tread cautiously on the internet and begin relationships with a bit of skepticism.

Part of protecting yourself and others around you means joining a league of “Responsible CyberCitizens.” This group of extraordinary “netizens”, or people who are particularly internet savvy, educate themselves about the internet system, its threats, and its vulnerabilities. Responsible cyber citizens know how to avoid the internet traps and, hopefully, teach others how to do so as well.

E-commerce start-ups, in particular, must be observant when establishing privacy and transaction security policies. There is no room for careless omissions. Nor can people blatantly ignore these policies when conducting financial business over the internet. First, all data – whether it’s being stored on a server or being sent over the internet – must be encrypted with either a secure socket layer or transport layer security. Consumers should also be vigilant by looking for a lock icon on a website before entering credit card information. This icon indicates that the site is secure with a digital certificate. Also in today’s world make sure to protect your WiFi connections no matter where you are.

E-commerce owners need to also educate themselves on new cyber laws. While it is difficult to keep tabs on every piece of new legislation, there are websites that can help. The THOMAS website (www.thomas.loc.gov) allows anyone to search for new legislation based search criteria (i.e. internet security). Business owners must also be aware of the Child Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA). This law essentially states that websites cannot collect the personal information of children under the age of 13 without parental consent. Websites can generally bypass this law by not collecting birth information from its subscribers.

While cyber corruption is rampant, there are easy ways to protect yourself, your children and your e-commerce business. For parents, knowledge and responsibility are two tools that help you fight cyber crime. For business owners, it means protecting the confidentiality, security, and integrity of every piece of personal information collected.

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