Page 66 - Cyber Defense eMagazine September 2018

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How Do We Get Privacy?

Revisiting the Basics and Importance of Cryptography
By Joe Guerra, Cybersecurity Instructor, Hallmark University

Since the onset of technology in society, it has broken the levees of data and has eroded our personal privacy.
In this digital age, the procurement and access to our personal data may be utilized and manipulated in a
quiet manner to control our behavior. With this in mind, let us peruse through the concepts of Privacy,
Encryption and Cryptography.

In the field, one of the most intriguing and disheartening things about cryptography is how minute amount of
cryptography we actually mess with. So, let us quickly review what privacy technically is and what today’s
technology has done to increase the vulnerabilities it has bestowed on it.

Privacy, what is it all about in Technology?

Privacy is a condition of being liberated from the public eye to the extent that you choose it to be. Today,
information is gathered and organized on almost every action and transactions that you initiate, perform, or
involved in. From web searching, buying, doing those online surveys, communicating through social media
platforms, etc. All these actions leave a digital exhaust that you left behind. Data bots and analysts then
aggregate this. This supposedly private data has associated risks. The risks are either inconveniences,
grouping or being profiled. Your data is used for marketing or sold to identity impersonators, which is a theft
or inconvenience. Your data is then associated with groups of similar background, interests and tendencies.
Alternatively, your data is deeply analyzed through statistical algorithms and informationally profiled and
grouped. A more in-depth way of profiling you.