Research pick: Internet privacy - "Information protection of end users on the web: privacy issues and measures"

The internet is almost ubiquitous and once one has access, one needs and wants always-on access. As with every technological advance there are those who will wish to exploit it and its users to malicious ends. Writing in the International Journal of Information and Computer Security, a team from the American University of Kuwait discusses the privacy issues and protective measures as they stand today.

Nooh Bany Muhammad and Aya Kandil suggest that without protections in place any user data is open to compromise and exploitation. There are many scenarios that might be considered, malware or manual hacks and social engineering might harvest or phish for a user’s private data, whether that’s their login username and password for various sites such as banks and online shopping. They might exploit the users’ devices to spread malware further afield. There is also the problem of corporate espionage and national and international “actors” that might seek to compromise a citizen’s right to privacy.

Technology shifts rapidly, the team suggests and might always be perceived as a game of “cat and mouse” in which users hoping to protect their privacy with antivirus and antimalware software are always attempting to stay ahead of the hackers and crackers. The team points out that “machine learning” or so-called “artificial intelligence” may represent the latest potent means to protect a device and thus its user’s privacy, allowing us to thwart even zero-day malware attacks that spread before the antivirus software can be updated.

Of course, we ourselves allow our privacy to be compromised perhaps unwittingly by accepting the terms and conditions of apps and software that we grant extensive permissions to on our smartphones and laptops. Many of the companies running such apps are interconnected, share data with advertisers for the sake of selling advertising, and even share data, for a fee with corporate entities and governments. Nothing much is private in that world. Users must educate themselves as to how their data might be compromised on a daily basis and in deciding how much they want to share, adopt the necessary tools to protect themselves from prying eyes.

Those who shout against privacy and suggest that a person only needs protection if they have something to hide might consider their own position of their personal health data, tax records, family photos, and browsing history were to be exposed in public. As author Joseph Heller wrote in his novel Catch-22 – “Just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean they aren’t after you.”

Muhammad, N.B. and Kandil, A. (2021) ‘Information protection of end users on the web: privacy issues and measures’, Int. J. Information and Computer Security, Vol. 15, No. 4, pp.357–372.