If you like spy movies, you’re familiar with the scene where someone plants a “bug,” or listening device, in an office, home, or hotel room. These tiny transmitters pick up noises, like conversations, and transmit them to someone listening or recording them. It sounds like movie stuff, but cybersecurity experts who work in government need …
When a cell phone is on, it’s always searching for a connection and sending out signals about where you are, even if it isn’t making or receiving a call or text. Many smartphones can record conversations that could be transmitted to someone else later. To prevent other people from listening in on conversations or monitoring …
Cell phones have made communicating with people easy. Before cell phones, you had to find a pay phone or landline or send a letter in the mail. Now, you can call or send someone a message from nearly anywhere. However, that convenience comes with a price because cell phones don’t guarantee your privacy. Some cell …
Years ago, people had to connect to the internet by attaching a cable to their computers. In 1997, Wi-Fi was first made available to the public. It seemed like magic. Wi-Fi lets you connect to the internet using wireless transmitters and radio signals. No cables needed! But there’s a problem. If you don’t use a …
When you travel, you often need an ID card or passport. Sometimes you need tickets or boarding passes. All these things contain personal information. Some of them even have bar codes that lead to data files with more information about you. If someone has access to a bar code reader (they’re available free online!), they …
Cybercrime is expensive. When databases or websites get hacked, it costs the targeted organization a lot of money. Sometimes hackers steal trade secrets, such as information about how products are made (secret recipes!) or plans for new products in development. The kinds of things that usually get stolen in a hack are: ■ Personal information, …
Protecting your organization from cybercrime is like playing Minesweeper. Your goal is to keep your computers and data safe so your organization can accomplish its goals. You create “defenses” for your computer systems, such as training your employees about cybersecurity, backing up your data, and hiring white hat hackers to look for weakness. At the …
When a website gets hacked, a lot of people are affected. Those people are all stakeholders. That means they care about, or have “a stake in,” the success and security of the website. For example, a business’s stakeholders might include its customers, other companies it does business with, people who own stock in the company, …
Solving a crime is like putting together a puzzle. You need to notice tiny details, but you also need to understand the bigger picture of how all the little pieces fit together. In cybercrimes, investigators need to notice tiny changes in computer code or unusual patterns in how sites are being used. Sometimes the clue …
When someone investigates a crime, they often recreate what happened. They look carefully at the crime scene and try to retrace the steps of the criminal. They look for footprints. When information moves around the internet, it leaves footprints, too. Bits of information, called data packets, take a certain route to get from your computer …
