Computer attacks: digital illiteracy in Portugal is “much higher” and teleworking “exposed more vulnerabilities”
A recent wave of computer attacks on companies, media groups and government organizations has highlighted a problem in Portugal: the digital literature, since human error is often the gateway used by cybercriminals. In the case of the cyberattack on Vodafone, it is already certain that it will originate from the company’s employee, without knowing that there is still some lapse on the part of that person.
The 2021 edition of the Economy and Society Digitality Index (IDES) reveals that Portugal remains below the European average, although it has risen three places compared to 2020, now occupying 16th place among the 27 EU Member States.
In conversation with Expresso, José Tribolet, a specialist in information systems, recognizes that “there is a very high degree of digital literacy”. The founder and former president of the Institute of Systems and Computer Engineering (INESC) emphasizes that “the majority of the population is not fluent in the use and positioning of the virtual world”something that “it is noticed at the most primary level, in the use of systems and in the care that must be taken with access credentials”.
The problem, however, is wider than the mere use of the systems. “There is a lack of awareness of what we are doing and where we are getting into”, stresses José Tribolet. “We owe digital literacy at a collective level, as in government and business organizations too, which still is of an atrocious primitivism”, classifies the professor at Instituto Superior Técnico.
In Tribolet’s opinion, “virtual space is a continuation of life and, therefore, people’s behavior – with doses of ignorance and irresponsibility – is also reflected in the digital world”, with the aggravating factor that the dangers are almost always silent and imperceptible. “The problem is that the virtual world as people do not have direct physical consequences of their risky behavior, such as directly crossing the road off the crosswalk, which could cause a car to take a hit. This does not happen in digital, which makes them use and abuse, without even thinking about what they are doing”, she comments. Therefore, he advocates, “it is to go to the bases of knowledge and philosophy so that the human being can position himself, individually and collectively, in the virtual space”. In other words, like José Tribolet, “we need to define rights and duties, but nobody is worried about that”.
Confinement has opened a gateway
“There is a brutal lack of qualified people to face the digital transformation”, begins by saying, to Expresso, Pedro Veiga. In the opinion of the cybersecurity expert, “they are not qualified as people and there is no training focused on that of older workers”. That’s why, assume to do “with some amazement but not much surprise that has been happening”, referring to the recent information attacks.
There is another important point: “digital skills are not limited to digital literature”, observes the former coordinator of the National Cybersecurity Center (CNCS), considered “one of the fathers” of the internet in Portugal. “The term literature has to do with the most basic things that anyone has to know, like reading. But there is a big difference between knowing how to read and being able to write a good, well-constructed text. The same is true in the digital space.”
For Pedro Veiga, “the country already had a lot of problems” with cybersecurity, but “the pandemic, which suddenly pushed people to telework, exposed the vulnerabilities even more”. That, considered the full professor at the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Lisbon, “it was the detonation of the bomb”once the confinement “it removed workers from the contained environment of the house where they were connected to an environment that is very safe – and placed a VPN for them in more environments, such as the environment of the home”.
Telework, defends the expert, “confronted people with new challenges, as they had to intensively use e-mail to work”. “In the midst of professional emails there are also many fraudulent ones that people do not know how to deal with”“often they end up opening them, downloading an attachment or accessing a link, which is enough to infect the entire network of the organization”, says Pedro Veiga.
However, email is just one of the inputs. “Just visiting a website that opens a Appear of advertising, the person carries it, and that’s enough to make download on one Software malicious, like a Trojan horse”, the most common type of computer virus, refers to the former CNCS coordinator. “It is a Software which often enters the computer, often unnoticed as it does not cause major changes in the machine’s operation, but which is working again on the machine or infecting other computers connected to the same network, explains Pedro Veiga.
Sometimes the digital ones can even have a physical format. “A trick often used by cybercriminals is, for example, intentionally leaving a pen at the entrance of a company. There will be an employee who, when he sees her on the floor, grabs her and takes her inside the company. Then you will be curious to know what it contains and you will find a device that is infected”, warns Pedro Veiga.
Another of the risks can be in your pocket or in the palm of your hand. “People find an app, which is very questionable, and they install it right away. but many apps can be malicious. Sometimes they are even used, but they forget to erase, allowing them to continue to affect the equipment or data replaced”, warns the cybersecurity expert.
In turn, Pedro Ferreira, professor linked to the Department of Educational Sciences at the University of Porto, says that “many people were not educated for digital devices and did not have many opportunities for the appropriate ones in their use”. The risk increases even more, he adds, because “there is also no awareness of the problems that can arise from non-normal use”.
If some may not be aware of the consequences, “other users simply accept us”even because “Growing up with these devices means almost giving up a number of things, like privacy”supports Pedro Ferreira.
It is urgent to promote digital literature, namely with actions adjusted to the needs of users, less typified, because if first standardized, people leave there with the formation of what is not useful, concludes Pedro Ferreira.