Protecting Data and Preventing Cyber Attacks: Tips and Strategies for Individuals and Institutions in Lebanon

Cynthia Sarkis wrote on the MTV website:

With one click, all personal and medical files in a Lebanese hospital disappeared… A frightening void replaced the long lists of patients’ names and health records. The reason was a group that succeeded in hacking the program and confiscated all the information, and did not return it until after a blackmail operation that ended with them obtaining an amount of nearly a million dollars.

The same story was experienced by one of the most famous engineering companies in Lebanon. It was also hacked and all its engineering projects and maps were confiscated, and the engineers were left without work and without their projects for days.

Cyber ​​attacks have become an obsession for companies and institutions of all kinds in Lebanon.. So what is the way to protect our data as individuals and within institutions? The most important question is: Are our ministries and institutions protecting themselves from any piracy that might overthrow their government applications and programs?

Digital transformation expert Paul Semaan enumerates basic procedures and guidelines that protect us from an evil that kills our privacy, information, and projects. They must be among the constants of companies and institutions as well as individuals. They begin by installing and updating security programs, i.e. antivirus, because investing in it does not constitute a loss, but rather a profit and preservation of our intellectual productions.

In an interview with the MTV website, Semaan stressed the necessity of copying all our data from time to time, and keeping the copy, if possible, in a different place to prevent it from being damaged if the building is exposed to any accident. Educating employees and organizing periodic courses for them is also considered essential so that they do not fall into the traps of hackers, through what they may receive via email or USB.

Our secret words are not enough, because anyone may hack them in various ways if he finds them easy or watches us while writing them. Therefore, it is better to add the two-factor authentication feature, that is, to support it with another key, which may be in the form of a number that arrives through a message on our phone.

The most important step to protect us, as well as to adapt to any emergency we may be exposed to, is to develop a plan to respond to security incidents, so that we can quickly assess the damage, inform employees in the event of exposure to any cyber attack, and move to another server without wasting time, while making sure to constantly update equipment and applications, especially in Large companies whose piracy often causes major damage and costs.

As for our ministries and departments, we will not place high hopes on their plans to confront any piracy due to the economic situation and the difficulty of securing what was mentioned above, especially in terms of the financial aspect that will result from it… However, it is necessary to stop at an important step that was achieved in 2022 when the government approved the digital transformation strategy. In cooperation with the UNDP and several ministries, which if implemented and have the intention to do so, we will be on the right and safe path along a path different from the one in which we are mired today…

2023-09-26 03:54:46

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