Tech Topics: Privacy & Network Security

 Tech Topics: Privacy

            Privacy and cybersecurity go hand-in-hand, but the concept of cyberprivacy is still new to many people. To most of the general public, the idea of having privacy online means limiting the information one shares. But the personally identifiable information that needs to be protected goes far beyond what people intentionally put out there such as in social media posts. An entire industry of data collection and analytics has grown out of many company’s need to understand consumers and figure out what they want without having to ask. Not all data collection is done with these optimistic intentions though, social engineering has shaped a darker side to internet privacy. Social engineering tactics are those that are used in “manipulating human behavior to gain unauthorized access to sensitive information by exploiting errors, behavioral patterns, and psychological tendencies. This deceptive technique targets employees and consumers, often tricking them into revealing critical credentials” (Happy, Asheshemi. 2025). In my experience in banking, social engineering tactics are often used to gather banking login credentials or even bank account information. These tactics can range from romance scams, promising affection in exchange for the information they want to hostage scams, convincing people that a loved one is in danger unless they can provide the information they are being asked for. People will go to extreme lengths to gather personally identifiable information, only further proving how valuable our information and therefore privacy is.

Tech Topics: Network Security

Network security is crucial to safeguarding data and privacy. Beyond standard practices like firewalls and encryption, one of the most vital defenses lies in preventing intrusions and quickly detecting anomalies. Prevention is key, but the next step, detection, can be even more interesting. Intrusion detection systems track activity patterns in a network and flag any behavior that deviates from the norm. In a discussion on anomaly detection, researcher Gunay Abdiyeva-Aliyeva explains how AI-based techniques are revolutionizing this process, noting, “One of the major cruxes in Intrusion Detection Systems (IDSs) is the detection of anomalies with great precision, together with reduced costs of computation from the enormous volume of data to be processed” (Abdiyeva-Aliyeva, 2023). The author goes on to highlight how AI-based algorithms can analyze and detect unusual behaviors faster, more efficiently, and more accurately than ever before. As these systems evolve, organizations can respond to threats swiftly, protect valuable data, and maintain user trust, all thanks to ongoing advances in artificial intelligence.

 

References

Happy, F., Asheshemi, O. N., & T., E. J. (2025). Human Vulnerabilities in Cybersecurity:

Analyzing Social Engineering Attacks and AI-Driven Machine Learning Countermeasures. Journal of Science & Technology (1607-2073), 30(1), 73–84. https://doi.org/10.20428/jst.v30i1.2597

G. Abdiyeva-Aliyeva, "AI-Based Network Security Anomaly Prediction and Detection in Future

Network," 2023 11th International Symposium on Digital Forensics and Security (ISDFS), Chattanooga, TN, USA, 2023, pp. 1-5.