As part of the celebrations marking the 60th Anniversary of the University of Mauritius, the Centre for Information Technology & Systems (CITS) organised a talk entitled "Staying Safe in the Digital World: Cybersecurity Basics"

The session was delivered by Mr Roshan Halkhoree, Director, CITS. The talk provided UoM staff with an overview of key concepts in cybersecurity, including online safety, data protection, and practical strategies for securing digital information.

Lately, the rise in digital cyberattacks has made cybersecurity a priority for businesses and individuals. For businesses, cybercrimes can lead to financial loss, operational disruption, data breaches, and a loss of trust, while individuals face identity theft, financial fraud, and privacy invasion. In the age of the internet, organisations are heavily relying on IT infrastructure to keep them safe from cyberattacks. Businesses, individuals and governments are investing heavily to reap the benefits of cybersecurity in protecting their assets and data against hackers.

Mr Halkhoree highlighted on some measures that staff can take to protect their devices from cyberattacks whether at their workplace or at home.

Measures/Precautions to take against hackers

1. Regular software and operating system updates

Updating software and operating systems regularly helps to patch vulnerabilities and enhance security measures against potential threats.

2. Using strong and unique passwords

Creating strong and unique passwords for each online account can enhance cybersecurity, as cyberattacks often exploit weak or stolen passwords.

3. Implementing multi-factor authentication (MFA)

Multi-factor authentication involves multiple identification forms before account access, reducing the risk of unauthorized access.  

4. Use of VeraCrypt to securely encrypt and decrypt data by creating encrypted volumes, partitions, or entire drives on Windows, macOS, and Linux. It protects sensitive information by making it unreadable without the correct password, and it can be used for individual files, partitions, or the entire system drive.