The recently formed UAE Cyber Security Council has posted an urgent alert to residents detailing the risks or uploading images at beach resorts. This message forms part of compliance measures to step up the understanding of cybersecurity and prevent people from being victims of cybercriminals.
Stating that dressing up for holidays and sharing pictures online can be dangerous for women, the council warned that it can be used in cyberbullying and identity theft, blackmailing, and several other unlawful acts. People’s images contain sensitive personal data concerning the age, gender, possible location, biometric data, the position of work, and health information making users prone to different cyber risks.
To mitigate these risks, the Council has provided several recommendations:To mitigate these risks, the Council has provided several recommendations:
- Secure Storage: Limit the access to paper documents preserving them in secure locations and, in case you store your papers digitally, use encryption.
- Strong Passwords: It mentioned about frequency of changing passwords and composition of the passwords.
- Privacy Settings: Consistently examine and adjust settings of social software and cloud data.
- Limit Sharing: Do not upload any restricted documents or any personal picture at any cost.
The Council also stressed on the need to upgrade all the devices to the most current versions of the operating systems. Users of the Apple devices were encouraged to install recent innovative securities to avoid such compromises.
On the other hand, the Council commended the implementation of its ‘Cyber Pulse’ program, through which the Council gets to increase security consciousness among the sectors. They also appealed for commitment from the public and private sector in the crusade to keep the digital front safe.
To the users who have Android and iOS devices more measures was suggested such as activation of the security measures and two-factor authentication. The Council noted that, for example, storage of photographs of passports and bank cards can create dangers, if the provocative material is stolen, the authors can be threatened with death.
Even Cybersecurity firm Kaspersky also expressed concern on personal data breach, noting the public to be very vulnerable to misconduct possibly leading to identity theft and other form of financial frauds.
Although the society of the UAE carries on strengthening the protective measures against cyber threats, citizens and residents are recommended to act as careful and attentive as possible when it comes to their cyber existence.