Butt-Holdsworth library hosted another seminar in its Tech Talks at the Library series with Hysun Chung, a cybersecurity engineer at Amazon, recently.
The free-to-attend series offers various demonstrations and lectures regarding topics suggested by the audience.
“We wanted to gauge the interests of the community,” Chung said.
Chung’s lecture delved into everyday cybersecurity tactics that can be used to protect personal privacy. With interactive demonstrations, audience-led exploration, and a professional point of view, Chung offers a unique learning experience for those interested in protecting their privacy.
Smartphones have become an integral part of our everyday lives. Tasks which once had to be delegated to multiple devices can now be compacted into one single object, one that can fit in a single hand. This technological feat we carry around in our pockets alleviates a slew of inconveniences, but at the price of risking privacy.
Chung leads the conversation about a balance between privacy and functionality with tips for managing your personal cybersecurity.
Chung explains how the websites and applications used can collect certain data from your device if permitted. Details like your location, contact lists, photos, and access to your microphone and camera can be collected by apps if allowed. Though sometimes these permissions need to be allowed for an app to function, i.e. allowing Facebook access to your photos for a post, Chung recommends allowing apps the bare minimum of information to operate. This is to limit the amount of data that could be potentially compromised.
Many times these permissions are automatically granted, and require someone to dig through their phone settings to turn the feature off. Depending on your device’s operation system, the process of locating and changing settings can be confusing. Chung provides demonstrations for accessing permissions using both Android and Apple operating systems.
Another way Chung advises to better protect data is by choosing strong, unique passwords. Perhaps the most obvious solution still happens to be the least commonly adopted. During the lecture, Chung asked the audience how many people use the same password for different sites. More than half of the room raised their hands.
Chung suggests using a password manager to combat the inconvenience of remembering multiple codes without sacrificing security. Password managers are programs that store all of a user’s passwords and only require one master password to access. Chung specifically recommends BitWarden as a reliable password manager.
Another tactic to avoid being a target to cyberattacks is by keeping your devices and applications updated. Updates are usually created to solve unexpected issues. These issues, or bugs, act as weak spots which a cyber attacker can exploit.
Chung explains that cyber attacks are usually not personally motivated, “How does a car thief operate? He doesn’t go into the lot looking for a specific car to steal, he just tries all the doors.” This analogy highlights the idea of not being a “soft target,” a term Chung uses to describe insecure data that is vulnerable to breaching.
The seminar emphasized the importance of knowing how to control personal privacy on the digital front. Attendees left the library with a clearer understanding of how their data is collected and used as well as strategies to deter cyberattacks.
For more information on upcoming Tech Talks at the Library events, contact the library reference desk at (830) 258-1274, or visit the city’s website at www.kerrvilletx.gov.