➤ What are computer vulnerabilities and what to do to reduce them? 🎮

Would you give your personal details and bank details to a criminal? Without a doubt, anyone would say no. However, it is possible that you are doing this through the computer you use or the mobile phone you have without even realizing it.

For this reason, in this article we will explain what computer vulnerability, what causes them and what repercussions they can have. In addition, we will provide individuals and businesses with some tips that can help them protect themselves from this cyber phenomenon.

What are computer vulnerabilities

This term related to cyber security yes refers to those weaknesses or defects that a computer system (operating system or third-party software) has that could make it susceptible to cyber attacks. Under these conditions, an attacker can violate the integrity, availability and access control of the system, violating its confidentiality and the data it contains.

Many times, these weaknesses are due to human error caused by one bad software design. This occurs when a portion of the program's source code is not written or reviewed from a general security point of view.

A hacker can exploit these weaknesses and compromise the integrity of the computer system, affecting it with various types of computer viruses.

In reality, computer vulnerabilities are not limited to programs designed by independent developers or by individuals or agencies not associated with large corporations. Furthermore, it does not depend on whether it is free, paid or open source software, as these weaknesses they are present in practically all programs. In fact, today there is a wide variety of types of computer worms that affect us on a daily basis.

Computer vulnerabilities represent potential harm to anyone who uses the system or software. These can be materialized in many ways, for example:

Diffusion of virus through the network.
Disclosure di give personal or confidential.
Intrusion of pirates computer scientists.

Attacking a vulnerable system can have economic, social, and even political consequences, for both businesses and the average citizen.

How to reduce and protect yourself from computer vulnerabilities

Today, many of our activities take place in the digital environment. In fact, much of our data and personal information is stored on the Internet or in applications, so they could be compromised if we don't adopt the appropriate measures.

For this reason, we will present some recommendations that both individuals and companies can implement to protect their information from attacks derived from computer vulnerabilities.

Recommendations for people

Have reliable antivirus software on all of your devices. Always try to install the best antivirus for PC and there is no doubt that you will be well protected.

Update any program you use to the latest version available, including your PC's operating system. When a developer identifies a vulnerability in their application, they are ready to fix it and release the security patch before any attacker can exploit it. But for it to take effect, the end user needs to download the latest version. If not, remains vulnerable.
Install a firewall or firewall that protects your devices from unauthorized access.
Do not install programs from unknown sources or from dubious Internet sites. Rather, it downloads from official pages, especially if it is popular application software.

Recommendations for companies

The best strategy to protect yourself from cyber attacks is the prevention. Therefore, it is highly recommended to implement frequent security protocols. If you don't know how to do this, you will be happy to know that it is very easy to install a free antivirus for your PC. The following is a practical example:

Perform a periodic inventory of your servers, applications, network infrastructure and peripherals (printers, etc.).
Assess servers for possible external and internal vulnerabilities. You can pretend you are an outside hacker.
With the information obtained from the previous diagnosis, determine what measures are needed to reduce threats or remediate vulnerabilities.
And finally, apply the relevant measures.

With a similar protocol, you can minimize your business risks. Apart from that, you can also follow these tips:

Educate your staff to avoid human factor vulnerabilities.
Periodically check for the latest known vulnerabilities in the systems you have implemented.
Manage passwords in safe and efficient way.
Keep i programs you use always updated.