(WSIL)--After the US's actions to counter Russia's invasion of Ukraine, President Biden said American businesses should strengthen their companies' cyber defenses immediately.
That warning comes from US intelligence saying Russia is exploring options for a cyberattack.
"It could be anything. It's a broad term but basically somebody is hacking an organization for one reason or another," said Tom Imboden, an Associate Professor of Information Technology at SIU.聽
The problem with a cyberattack is that the term is so broad, it could affect almost any part of daily life.
"There's a lot of important data that companies and governments have. Top secrets related to military, it could be financial theft. It could be disruption by using computers to take down services that we use day in and day out," said Imboden.
Because of our dependence on the internet for connectivity, Imboden said a cyberattack could impact agriculture, food supply, gas production, or our own financial security.
"Attacks against infrastructure are things we don't necessarily think about. We see the results of bigger cyberattacks, but the technology that runs the internet that could be overwhelmed or attacked is also at risk," Imboden said.
There are ways to protect yourself and your information.
Make sure you use strong passwords and don't reuse them on different platforms.
And getting an extra level of protection through a two factor authentication is also a good idea.
"If your password and username are stolen, without having a second factor authentication, the little text message that gets sent to you or the app on your phone, that will keep people out of your account in the event a company was hacked and your information was disclosed," said Imboden.
