S. L. FULLER
Editor in Chief
Mo Sadek used to write for The Leader, mostly about video games. Then he graduated from Fredonia last May with a degree in computer information systems and went into the real-world workforce. He recently finished up an internship with Rapid7 in Texas, and now he’s about to start a new job with Cigital in Indiana. Both of these are top computer security companies and Sadek now has an impressive set of skills — and a resume to go with them.
October is National Cyber Security Awareness Month, so I figured there was no one I’d rather talk to about it than Sadek. Not only is he extremely knowledgeable in this area, but he’s also very good at putting the high-tech lingo in layman’s terms — which is the only way I could ever understand it.
“There’s this thing in [computer] security where convenience and security don’t coexist on the same axis,” explained Sadek over the phone. “The more secure something is, the less convenient it is for users. So there’s this weird relationship, so we tend to forget [about security].”
Not many people are aware that it’s Cyber Security Month, but computer security is something everyone should be aware of. New technology is coming out all the time: smart TVs, smart refrigerators and even smart thermostats. While the convenience of being able to control all household items from a smartphone is thrilling, Sadek said it’s leaving people more vulnerable to cyber attacks.
“There are all these things that people use without thinking twice about security, which goes back to convenience,” said Sadek. “Once an attacker exploits [one] device and is able to control your network, [the attacker] can go anywhere else. You can steal credentials and everything else.”
Think about all the things a cellphone knows about its owner: email accounts, calendars, contacts, internet history, maybe even banking information for those who use Android Pay and things of that nature. If someone gets access to a cellphone, he or she also gets access to the owner’s whole life. As new technologies develop, so do ways to hack into them. But there are simple things one can do to protect the valuable information.
“Make sure your passwords aren’t ‘puppy123,’” laughed Sadek.
While he may be joking, making sure to have complex passwords is one of the easiest ways to keep from being vulnerable to cyber attacks.
“As humans, we can only remember seven letters or numbers at the same time,” said Sadek. “A very good security practice is to use small phrases [in your password] instead of one word and some numbers. Easier passwords will be easier to break and the longer it is, the harder it is to break.”
There are many ways to break passwords, and black hat hackers are developing new programs and strategies all the time. But, thankfully, so are white hat hackers.
Confused? So was I. But Mo broke it down for me.
There’s way more to the explanation, but in basic terms: there are good hackers, bad hackers and hackers in between. All three types spend their days trying to obtain information and break through cyber barriers they shouldn’t have access to.
White hat hackers are the people who work in computer security companies and try to keep vulnerabilities to a minimum. They do this is many different ways. One way is to try to hack into programs themselves, then make suggestions and fix things so that others won’t be able to.
Black hat hackers are the reason we need white hat hackers. Black hat hackers are the people who try to steal information and use it for illegal purposes.
Gray hat hackers are a mixture of both white and black hat hackers — kind of good but kind of bad.
Sadek stressed, however, that as long as a person acts smartly, there’s really nothing to worry about.
“Just make sure you’re not being stupid,” said Sadek. “I would be careful of most of your actions and how you’re doing things. Really, the biggest vulnerability is people. [Hackers] are simply trying out the most basic passwords and talking to people. People are the biggest security leaks sometimes.”
During Cyber Security Awareness month, the Professional Development Center is putting on lectures and other events around campus to teach anyone who cares to learn how to reduce cyber attack vulnerability.
Before we got off the phone, Sadek had two more pieces of advice.
“It’s a proven statistic [that] most people who are affected with malware get them from adult sites,” he said. “And also, Macs can, in fact, get viruses.”