MOBILE PHONES CAN CAUSE SEVER ILLNESS

Mobile phones, no doubt is the biggest and fast moving electronic gadget market in the world today. The International Telecommunication Union had reported in 2011 that about 6 billion mobile phones have been subscribed at the end of that year. This means that 86 out of every 100 people have mobile phones worldwide. It have become a clip of our society, with every Tom Dick and Harry right from school kids to grown-up adults owning at least a mobile phone. Although mobile phones have made life easier but its negative effects are detrimental to users. Medical and ICT experts have shown a lot of concerns about the negative effects associated with the use of mobile phone.

Bacteria on Mobile Phones

Along with important information stored in mobile phones are deadly bacteria which are easily spread ignorantly by the user or owner of the mobile phone. An average mobile phone user puts his or her phone(s) in contact with several places where it can come in contact with germs.

A research carried out in University of London in 2011, shows that one in six mobile phones is contaminated with some sort of fecal matter, probably because their owners did not wash their hands with soap after using the toilet. E. coli, a bacterium from fecal origin was found in some phones. Such bacteria causes diarrhea, vomiting and sever fever when injected into the body.

Another research carried out by health students at South University Columbia, found out that mobile phones were frequently contaminated with methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). Staph aureus according to Dr. Robert J. Wolff “is always dangerous and MRSA forms are worse because they cannot be stopped easily. Staph skin infections, including MRSA, can quickly turn into deep, painful abscesses. The bacteria might remain confined to the skin, or burrow deeper into the body, causing potentially life-threatening infections in bones, joints, surgical wounds, the bloodstream, heart valves, and lungs.”

If your hands are very dirty, there is every tendency that your mobile phone would be highly contaminated with the same type of bacteria found on your dirty hands at that moment. The public are advised to maintain proper hygiene, keep their hands clean by washing with soap and water. They can also use a hand sanitizer, and importantly, clean their mobile phones often using a fairly dry towel and wipes that are safe to use on devices.

Your Eyes maybe at Risk

Bright screens and tiny text character can strain the eyes of mobile phone users and causes sever damage. It is important for mobile users to constantly refocus and reposition the eyes so as to process the text or graphics on the screen. This is because smartphones, tablets, and other hand-held devices are designed for reading at close range. The higher the use of hand-held devices, the more potential problems associated with vision. Symptoms of digital eye strain include eye redness or irritation, dry eyes, blurred vision, back pain, neck pain, and headaches. 

The public are advised to follow the “20-20-20” Rule. Which means, Take a 20-second break every 20 minutes when using an electronic device and look at something 20 feet away. People should reduce focus on the screen. They should make sure the screen is always clean and clear, the surrounding light that is competing with the screen should be dimmed, and there should be adequate distance between the eyes and the screen and also increase the text character of the device.

Radio Wave Exposure

Radio waves emitted by mobile phones transmit in all directions to find the nearest base station. It means that some of the radio waves are directed at your body when you use a mobile phone. Radio waves are absorbed into your body tissue as energy, which adds to the energy being produced by your body's metabolism. There have been speculations that the radiation from mobile phones can cause cancer and infertility, however the only known effects of this wave in the body is a little increase in temperature (about 0.2^oC according to experts) which is similar to normal rise in body temperature during rigorous exercise.

MOST COMMON WAYS CYBER CRIMINALS ATTACK BUSINESS SOCIAL MEDIA ACCOUNTS CUM PREVENTIVE MEASURES

About 95% of business enterprise and large organizations today have a sizable presence on social media, including Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn, among others. While social networks can enhance customer engagement and strengthen the company's brand in the marketplace, opportunistic attackers looking to embarrass an enterprise, tarnish its brand, tap from her resources or make a statement to the world have no better avenue than compromising corporate social media accounts.

Here are the most common ways in which attackers compromise social media accounts, and measures enterprises should take to ensure they don't fall prey.

Secure social media management

Using social engineering in phishing emails means an attacker doesn't have to circumvent network perimeter defenses, rather they only craft a credible and persuasive email that tricks the employee who manages the organization's social media accounts into clicking a malicious link or providing the password to the accounts.

Enterprises and organizations with a large social media following must ensure that those employees responsible for social media accounts receive security awareness training that covers how to recognize and deal with social engineering-based attacks prior to being given access credentials to corporate social media accounts.

This training should explain how social engineers operate and the tactics employees should be on the lookout for. With the proper training, these encounters should become second nature; the employee should know to trash offers that look too good to be true or links requiring login credentials, even if they appear to come from an internal address or partner organization. Simple safeguards such as checking that the sender actually sent an email with an attachment are invaluable. Be sure to keep employees informed of the latest techniques being used in brand hacking attacks such as phishing emails based on breaking news stories, both true and fictitious. Enterprises must also put procedures in place for employees to report unusual emails so that network surveillance can be stepped up and other employees forewarned.

Emerging attacks and security controls

It's important to note that it's not just social media account credentials that need safeguarding. A number of attackers have successfully compromised social media accounts by subverting domain name system (DNS) data. By capturing the login credentials of people authorized to modify DNS records, attackers can redirect tweets, blogs and other traffic to servers they control. Enterprise DNS administrators should take advantage of security features offered by Registrars to control modifications made to their domain.

Twitter itself has also put security controls in place to help prevent hacking across its platform. A recent SEA attack against Twitter was only partially successful as the company had implemented the "Domain Lock" feature which prohibits certain changes to a domain until it is unlocked -- a simple but valuable control.

In addition, two-factor authentication should be introduced for both social media accounts and for those that control important services like DNS. Out-of-band checks such as a security code sent to the user's mobile phone can greatly reduce the chances of a phishing email being enough to gain access to an account. Ideally, dedicated computers should be used to access and update social media content so that additional security checks and controls can be deployed on these systems to monitor for unusual network traffic and keyloggers, which have become another suspected method used by hackers to obtain social media account credentials.

It is critical to draw up an emergency response plan to reduce the impact of a social media account breach, should one occur. It is important that website administrators know which modules or components within a site provide social media content so that they can be quickly disabled should the need arise. This will also help prevent the need for an entire site to be taken offline.

While social media is a great way for enterprises to interact with their customers and strengthen their reputation, companies that want to maintain trust in their brand must put forth the extra effort required to stop them from falling prey to brand hacks and social attacks.