Gelisim News

IGU students discussed "Cyber Security"

This week, students came together to talk about “Cyber Security” at the IGU Coffee Talks event held within the scope of Istanbul Gelisim University (IGU) Development Workshops. Asst. Prof. Dr. Serkan Gönen stated that social engineers have found a vulnerable point where they can deceive people and send unknown links to steal their social media accounts.

Istanbul Gelisim University brings together students throughout the year with Artistic Development, Sportive Development, Cultural Development and IGU Coffee Talks events, enabling them to both receive education and socialize in different fields. This week, students talked with Asst. Prof. Dr. Serkan Gönen, Head of Software Engineering Department, Faculty of Engineering and Architecture, about "Cyber Security", which has become one of the most significant subjects of our time.

CYBER BULLYING AND PERSONAL DATA PROTECTION

In our era, our entire social life, from health to education, from shopping to chat, takes place on the internet, however, not enough attention is paid to safety while doing these. Asst. Prof. Dr. Serkan Gönen stated: “In our workshop, we talked about how social media accounts are stolen, which has been on the agenda recently, and social engineering, which is one of the important techniques used here. After discussing the differences between cyberbullying, critical infrastructures, cyber security and information security, we talked to our students about the points to be considered in passwords and the points to be considered in protecting our personal data in our daily lives. The students were very involved. We also talked about the questions about careers in cyber security and the work that needs to be done.”

EVERYONE CAN BE FOOLED BY CYBER ATTACKS!

Students were also informed about the theft of social media accounts, which we hear frequently today. The main issue is that the links should not be clicked. Dr. Gönen said, “99.9% of the studies on stealing accounts is to find a vulnerable point where they can trick people through social engineering, send a link related to that topic and wait for them to click on it. For instance, the most commonly used links are the links sent to aid campaigns for children fighting life-threatening diseases. They try to take advantage of emotions that people will find weak, such as fear, pity, and compassion. When you click on the links, you are directed to a clone page as if you left your own social media account. After you enter your username and password, it redirects you to the real account, but the clone page in between steals your account. After that, you are asked for money to recover your account. We call these attacks ransomware attacks.”

Gönen also added, “The most important point to note is not to click on untrusted posts. There is no such thing as never be fooled by social engineers. The crucial thing is the social engineer attack that needs to be prepared for you, me and many people can fall for it. Do not click unknown links. It can even be pretended to be from your friend. In such cases, it is necessary to confirm it.”