What Is Facial Scanning? What Are the Threats Involved in It?

Facial scanning seemed like a fantasy a few years ago, but today we can open our mobile phones by scanning our faces. Millions of people are happy to access their smartphones with facial scanning worldwide. Facial scanning technology has a rapid increase in corporate organizations, airports, mobile phones, and shopping malls. Although facial recognition has advantages to companies, biometric technology also poses threats that both companies and users are concerned about in recent years. Although many automobile companies still introduce facial scanning technology.

More Info: 312-50: Certified Ethical Hacker (CEH)

Technological developments continue to open new ways in which organizations can use face template data to improve their efficiency and reliability. It is common to unlock a smartphone with facial scanning or check-in at the airport with your face today. Although the technology for facial scanning has brought countless advantages, its use also carries substantial privacy risks. This article talks about facial scanning technology, threats that evolved in it, and how to mitigate them.

What Is Facial Scanning Technology?

Facial scanning is a new age technology computerized to match a human face among a huge record of images or videos of faces in a database called a facial recognition database. The primary purpose of facial scanning is to authorize users against identity verification services by mapping out the features of a facial structure and distinctive details such as distance between eyes, the shape of the nose, etc., from an array of provided images or videos.

The technology of facial scanning attracts a lot of attention. Many companies and organizations use online recognition and verification to achieve their desired objectives, whether for fun, security, or user experience. Facial scanning is a biometric check that can identify or verify an individual to compare and analyze patterns based on the person’s facial contours.

Facial recognition uses deep learning algorithms to make it more likely to have fewer errors compared. Deep learning is a form of machine learning that provides data to learn from artificial neural webs, human-inspired algorithms. A deep learning algorithm would repeat a task, modifying it each time to improve the outcome. It identifies and captures the human face and then becomes an object of verification based on the essential characteristics of the face. These characteristics are generally the position of the eyes, the nose, and the corners of the mouth.

◉ For instance, facial scanning firstly scans the distance between your eyes, nose, and mouth, the shape of your nose and mouth, and a variety of all other minor details on the face.

◉ Once all features on your face are identified, a face signature will be created. Finally, once the face is scanned, a database with known faces is compared for a match again.

How does Facial Scanning Technology Work?

Humans can identify faces quickly. You will likely find the facet of an individual, a friend, or an acquaintance in your family. Your face features — the distance between the arch of your eyebrows and eyes, the tilt of your lips, position of your nose, etc. comprise your unique facial structure; this is how it works but on a large, algorithmic scale. Recognition technology sees data where you see a face. This information can be saved and accessed.

Face detection

Firstly, facial scanning begins with a face and identifies the appropriate face characteristics of the person. We think the human face is a basic set of eyes, nose, and mouth characteristics. Like that, the facial scanning technology recognizes the face; this is done through an extensive database of images with human sides looking at different points of view with deeper neural network & machine learning algorithms.

It starts with eyes, then eyebrows followed by nose and mouth begins to calculate the nose width, distance from forehead to mouth, and sizes. Once all the features are identified on the face region, the algorithm’s numerous algorithm training is performed on databases to detect faces.

· Face recognition

After the face is identified, a program is designed to detect the facial landmarks with an image processing algorithm. Each landmark on the face is referred to as nodal points about 80 on every human face. These landmarks are very crucial in identifying the face in the database. Now the face registered in the database is repositioned and appropriately scaled to match the original face as it is beneficial to recognize when the facial expressions change.

· Face representation

After the face is registered, the face’s nodal points, position, and sizes are sent into the software. Later, the software assigns a new face vector for every individual face in numerical codes called faceprints. Now, each faceprint distinguishes from person to person in the database.

Face matching

Lastly, after the face is recognized with the new vector code, it is compared to the faces available in the database, consisting of all registered faces. If the software detects the exact match in the database, it will give the person’s information, or else the interface classifier returns the vector code to the database.

Applications of Facial Scanning Technology

· Attendance in school

most schools have begun to implement facial scanning technology to automate students’ attendance; this helps the teachers spend less time taking the student’s attendance of larger strength and focus on teaching more. The advantage of the automated facial scanning attendance system is that no proxies can be given. It is also good to keep track of the whole campus to avoid threats.

· At airports

Airports must have facial scanning to track the passengers or people entering and going out of the airport. The security department uses this technology to identify the criminals, terrorists, and the people who exceeded the visas by comparing their photos in their existing database, which contains pictures of criminals and people who have exceeded their visas.

· Organizations’ access control

Facial scanning technology is now used in many corporate companies and other government offices for fast and effective access. As it helps in tracking everyone’s activities in the organization, identify the visitors. It also functions in enhancing security by immediately reporting any potential violations.

· Mobile apps

Many mobile apps, including Facebook Snapchat, also use facial scanning features. For instance, if a user clicks his/he selfie and can look how young or old or as the opposite gender or any other comic characters look just for entertainment. luxand is also a popular app specially designed for security purposes as it can identify faces in real-time.

· Banking

The banking sector uses facial scanning technology for making transactions more secure. Some businesses even started using pay-by-face counters as safe and fastest payment methods, unlike credit card payments and other forms, as it’s difficult to spoof the face.

Security Threats and Privacy Risks of Face Recognition

Like all other technologies, facial scanning also has significant downsides, such as cost, privacy threats, data hacking, and other crimes. There is also the risk of errors due to technological flaws.

· High costs required

Facial scanning requires high-quality, obviously costly cameras and advanced software. It is expected that technological advancements will lower the cost of facial recognition systems in the future.

Due to poor camera quality, facial scanning has a problem in identifying people with darker skin tones, so it is significantly less accurate to identify these people. So, it is challenging to determine the actual person. It can be a severe problem in law enforcement where misidentification can lead to an arrest of an innocent person instead of a criminal. It is expected that technological advancements will lower the cost of facial recognition systems soon.

· Data storage and theft

Facial scanning generally requires video and high-quality images, which need a significant amount of storage. It forces businesses to process everything on several machines at the same time, which is inconvenient.

Facial scanning generally requires video and high-quality images, which need a significant amount of storage which is an important issue. Few companies and law enforcement departments store their face recognition data on local servers, due to which data breaches occur. If data from facial recognition technologies are stored in the cloud, the data is most secure. It forces businesses to process everything on several machines at the same time, which is inconvenient.

· Loss of individual privacy

Individual privacy is adversely affected because of facial scanning technology. None of us like to have our faces stored in an unknown database. Confidentiality is a significant problem for everyone, especially in California that has prohibited facial scanning in real-time. In that case, police can use video recordings of video security devices owned by persons but cannot use software for live facial scanning

· Identification errors

Facial scanning may not always be completely accurate with the database on the faceprints. Errors usually happen because the images are insufficient or the database lacks information. Poor illumination or image quality can make it challenging to analyze the nodal points properly. When the face angles are blurred, the data are affected and cause errors in the faceprint and incorrect matches in the databases.

· Provide fraud opportunities

Cybercriminals also use facial scanning technology for criminal activities. They gather personal data, images, videos of an unknown person collected from facial scans and stored in databases. A hacker uses this information to obtain the credit card, debit card credentials of the victim.

How to Mitigate Facial Scanning Threats

Facial scanning technology has a wide range of applications in every industry, making it an easy target for cybercriminals to exploit and steal data from facial recognition databases. It is very crucial to take necessary precautions and mitigate cyber threats caused due to facial scanning technology.

◉ For excellent and proper data storage, the organization’s IT security team should maintain network security 24/7.

◉ Cybersecurity should be part of the organization’s security plan to ensure proper data storage to manage facial scanning technology

◉ Examine the company’s privacy and data security practices to learn who it shares data with.

◉ The organization must implement external audits for security measures and protocols, such as t SOC 2 certifications.

◉ External white hat security testing, such as penetration testing, is performed by the organization.

◉ An ethical hacker would help in securing the system from violations and vulnerabilities that attackers exploit. By using ethical hacking tools, the hacker would protect and prevent the attacks from occurring.

Facial scanning technology is effective but should be used effectively. It is advantageous for government offices, law enforcement, organizations, and end-users to increase their safety and track crimes. Besides, facial scanning also may be exploited and have severe consequences for the personal benefit of hackers. But by few safety measures, we can use it for intelligent work. It is estimated that the interaction between facial scanning and human rights and personal privacy will take at least 3 -4 years. We can then wait and expect huge industries to make it more user-friendly, transparent, and secure to enable everybody to benefit.

Source: eccouncil.org

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Malware Protection Made Easy

Ever felt like your system is slowing down or creeping to work, then beware! You may fall victim to and been infected by malware. A slow system or any weird behavior is a visible sign of a terrible malware infestation lurking through your system. But we need to define what a Malware is? It is a term that refers to various types of cybersecurity risks, such as viruses, worms, Trojans, spyware, ransomware, and so on. Always keep in mind that the behavior of each malware is different, they all share a common goal, that is to make your system vulnerable, and the severity differs in each case and the malware infection. The symptoms of a malware attack are quite discrete but needs good judgment and experience on the behavior of malware, when compared to a virus and more. Then and only if you know how to detect them, will you be able to determine how to remove them without losing too much in the process, as they can cause damage by the time you realize it is in your system.

Whatever type of antivirus software you install, there is a possibility that you will miss detecting a significant amount of malware, and you should be mindful that most malware goes undetected by antivirus and may need specialized malware removers. As soon as professional malware writers design a new malware, the botnet ecosystem self-updates immediately after detecting the existing malware. Even though your anti malware software is robust, it remains a step behind the malware. No antivirus or antimalware product remains fully accurate over an entire year. That demands a well-trained mind, but overall you need to train staff to notice these irregularities to help to act and react the soonest.

What are the Popular Signs that Your System Is Infected?

1. Frequent Pop-up Ads

Keep note of how often you see a pop-up. If you have adware in your system, you will experience many pop-ups, possibly loaded with links to malicious websites. Though there are ads for legitimate products, it is important to differentiate them from unauthentic business products appearing on your screen. The ideal way forward to protect yourself is to have an adware protector within your browser extensions to help, it is not always accurate, but you need to train and add sites that you feel are fishy.

2. Redirected Browser

A Trojan or virus in your system may redirect you to a website unfamiliar to you. Simple signs are, trying to reach your favorite search engine and being redirected to a completely different website or a different search engine. Sometimes the redirection is not noticed unless you specifically observe the link. In this type of attack, the foremost thing to do is to check browser settings and disable or delete any extensions that you have not installed explicitly.

3. Antivirus Which Is Not Legitimate

Isn’t it scary learning about “Fake antivirus”? It makes you feel insecure, especially when you realize that the antivirus software that you believed was there to protect your system from the virus is the reason behind the virus on your system. Such fake antivirus appears to work faster than legitimate software and throws out excess vulnerabilities than actual ones, pretending that it is legitimate and effective.

4. Unethical Posts on Your Social Media

If the malware focuses on your social media accounts, it will likely redirect you to a fake social media page. It might even post links from malicious websites on your wall, inviting other vulnerable victims to click and download malicious content.

5. Ransom Demands

Some extreme malware programs block access to your system or data for a ransom amount commonly known as Ransomware. Ransomware threats encrypt your data and demand ransom money to decrypt them, but all payments are always through Bitcoins so no one can trace the perpetrator. The notorious WannaCry attack, which is considered to be the worst ransomware attack in history, crippled computers of over 150 countries and billions of dollars of loss worldwide. The ransomware demanded US$300 in Bitcoin from victims to unlock the company’s computers. Antivirus apps and security tools should protect against most ransomware, but it is preferred to have a robust security plan with dedicated ransomware protection software. The main point again is to train staff to recognize offers or clicking where they should not be and where the logic dictates that there is nothing that will help them. But users are always easy to get to, and the outcomes are pretty obvious. But then a good recent backup can be a solution. It depends whether you ever tested the recovery before you do so.

Malware Attack—How Does Malware Get into Your System?

Malware is installed on any system unintentionally. It is mainly due to certain negligent acts that the malware finds its way in your computer or network. Navigating and opening emails of known or even unknown origin can bring us down. We always need to navigate in all precautions. “Cross the road when you are sure you are secure and safe.”

Free Software Programs

There is no “free” software other than the truly legitimate one. Most of the freeware manufacturing companies in partnership with other companies bundle the additional application with the download as a part of their marketing strategy. The add-on software, however, may carry spyware, adware, or another type of destructive malware that can spread vulnerabilities in the system and beyond.

File Sharing Services

Downloading media or content through torrents or any other means, which is not original, is an illegal act. Files that users download via peer-to-peer sharing would have traveled across multiple computers that may not be secure. The files may carry a lot of infected malware, apart from those, malware manufacturers set up fake files on such torrent platforms for the user to download. The most common are movies and TV series, which are easy targets to package a good gift.

Scareware

Scareware is the type of malware that masquerades as security software. The pop-up with messages about a “virus on the computer” flashes on the screen asking you to click a link to begin the cleaning process. These messages are designed to scare you into clicking on the phishing link.

Removable Disk

Malware also comes hidden on the firmware of the USB stick or removable media drives, which makes it hard to detect. If the malware already exists on any computer or device, connecting a USB will infect the disk and transfer it to the next system connected to it. The same malware may also infect CDs or DVDs and spread it to other systems. The disaster is that some malware act and have the characteristics of a worm and spread on the networks as well, so any means is a good means.

No Security Software

Security software is an essential tool for your system, especially when it is connected to the Internet and to the company network itself. The lack of antivirus and other robust security tools will attract all types of malware to your system. If the security software on your system is not updated, there is a possibility that the malware lurking on the Internet might get into the system due to the incompetence of your security program.

Some Upfront Tips to Prevent Malware from Infecting Your System

a) Install a Good Antivirus Software

Antivirus is a must. Though a default software will benefit, it is always advisable to have an effective and robust antivirus and also to ensure that you have an antimalware software that can deal with the latest malware. This should be the first step to having a malware-free system.

b) Update Your Antivirus and Operating System

The manufacturers of operating systems and other software programs release updates and patches for flaws in the software or to update the software’s capacity to prevent new malware or security holes. Antivirus updates are also released to make the security software more efficient towards the latest malware identified. Ensure, also, that your antimalware/antivirus definitions are updated as often as possible.

c) Schedule Regular Scanning

This appears to be the simplest way to prevent a malware attack, but many of us often forget to do it. It is important to scan your system for any malicious activity regularly. It is difficult to work on the system while the scan runs in the background, it is advisable to schedule the scan during the night or when you are away from the system. Make sure that it doesn’t shut off or move into hibernation mode during scanning. In many corporate offices, they schedule daily or nightly automatic or during the day scans to happen, because it can be a good precaution.

d) Secure Your Network

Your Internet connection or Wi-Fi connection should be secured with a strong password. Use WPA or WPA2 encryption and not WEP as expert hackers can bypass it. It is also a good idea to hide your SSID and create another SSID for your guest with a different password and may also be a good idea to have a different separate network subnet if it is purely surfing and nothing to do with your main network. Take all precautions not to broadcast open Wi-Fi connection to anyone.

e) Don’t Access Open Wi-Fi

When at the airport, hotel, coffee shop, library, and so on, do not use a free, open, or non-encrypted Wi-Fi network. Such open Wi-Fi networks can be used by any cybercriminal to send malicious content and make your device vulnerable. When you do need to connect enable a firewall blocker to track any incoming traffic if at all possible. Also, ensure that you do not have any shared folders or guest access accounts that may be vulnerable to access.

f) Stay Aware of Phishing Attacks

You should be careful while accessing emails from unknown senders or while downloading files from malicious websites. Hover on the email attachment or link in the email to understand the authenticity of the source. Before downloading any file from the Internet, an FTP site, a file sharing service, an email, and so on, ensure to scan it for virus content. Sometimes, these can come from legitimate sources but they are already compromised, and thus, you are a name on the contact list.

g) Backup Your Files

Ideally, you should maintain a backup of your file at three places—on the system where you create them, on a different device, and off-site. When you store your data on an external hard disk, store the disk securely in a safe deposit box. Also, be careful while sharing personal information online on social media and message boards. When someone is working on your system, do not leave it unattended as it may cause data loss too. A piece of advice here is always to be sure to test data recovery to be sure in the event of a need to recover you can do so; thus, testing them from time to time is important. If you can backup but not recover, then you have lost everything important.

Malware is a serious concern for your systems and networks. Many organizations are considering hiring exclusive services to protect and defend their networks from malware attacks. Ethical hacking helps to identify and reach malware and take appropriate measures to remove them. EC-Council offers Certified Ethical Hacking (C|EH) program that gives you the skills to identify the vulnerabilities in target systems and use the same knowledge and tools as a malicious hacker but lawfully and legitimately.

Source: eccouncil.org

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The Average Salary of a Certified Ethical Hacker (CEH)

A Certified Ethical Hacker (CEH) is an individual whom organizations hire to investigate the security of their online systems by trying to hack into them.

These ethical hackers, who are usually called “penetration testers,” recognize flaws in the system that an unethical hacker would exploit. By finding the hacks before a thief does, an organization can better protect itself against fraud. Nowadays, almost every organization across the world, whether it be online commerce and retail, hospitality, logistics and transport, real estate, healthcare, or any industry in between. Ethical hackers utilize some variant of ethical hacking to maintain their information the way it should be: secured! The average CEH salary ranges based on the geographics. Within each country, particular cities, states, or regions lean to pay more than others.

Median CEH Salary Ranges by Country:

United States

The average pay scale for a CEH is $71,331 per year. The salary can stretch from $24,760 to $111,502, with a bonus payoff between $0.00 and $17,500. Therefore, the total salary is roughly $24,760 – $132,322, all depending on what particular roles he or she executes, and the number of years of experience.
As a whole, a first-year CEH can presume to make around $60,000. After five to nine years of experience, that figure increases to approximately $71,000. After ten years of experience, a CEH can aspirer to earn roughly $91,500, expanding to $105,000 after 20 years.

The top five states or regions with the highest CEH salary are:

1. California– $103,459
2. Washington, D.C.- $97,081
3. Maryland– $93,768
4. New York– $92,606
5. Virginia– $92,056

CEH Salary Varies by Job Profiles:

• Cyber Security Analyst: $49,648 – $127,426
• Security Analyst: $50,180 – $126,205
• Penetration Tester: $50,684 – $126,205
• Security Engineer: $64,385 – $124,877
• Information Security Analyst: $53,743 – $106,875

Canada

In Canada, a CEH salary can ranges between C$62,288 and C$74,000 (almost $64,387 to $76,400). Those with experience of one to four years make about C$48,000. Those with 5 to 9 years earn almost C$63,300, while those with 10 to 19 years of experience in the ethical hacking field earn $C66,100 yearly.

The top five regions with the highest paying salary are:

1. New Brunswick– C$108,000
2. British Columbia- C$98,000
3. Quebec- C$75,000
4. Manitoba– C$72,166
5. Ontario– C$71,842

CEH Salary Varies by Job:

• Security Consultant: C$52,853 – C$113,044
•  Security Engineer: C$48,102 – C$135,353
• Cyber Security Analyst: C$44,335 – C$99,844
• Security Analyst: C$41,814 – C$91,895
• Penetration Tester: C$35,000 – C$96,000

How to Earn CEH Certification?

To be officially identified a CEH, an individual must be certified by the EC Council known as the International Council of Electronic Commerce Consultants. The EC-Council is an organization of individuals who are committed to staying up-to-date of any advanced technology advancements and distributing that knowledge to those who pass the certification exams. The Council honors itself on regularly contacting with professionals in the field and integrating examples from actual successful hacks.

The certification method requires several different components, including ethical hacking and countermeasures and penetration testing. The areas of study comprise foot-printing and survey, studying how to scan networks, viruses, system hacking, and worms, enumeration, SQL injection, denial of service attacks, hacking web applications and web servers, Trojans and backdoors, and cryptography, among others.

The program also demands all those who want to obtain the CEH title to listen to testimonials by practicing information security professionals. The idea is that by developing a community of information sharing, individual hacks are more straightforward to both detect and defeat. Many of the security professionals who give talks at the CEH training center have had comprehensive experience dealing with reasonably high profile systems which require rigorous testing regularly.

Summary

The earnings prospective of any individual is therefore very much affected not only by his or her training, but the conditions in which he chooses to work in, and his previous experience in the field. A freelance penetration tester, for instance, may charge higher “consultant” charges than a domestic CEH, based on that particular individual’s experience with the organization.

A software professional who determines to become certified may or may not experience an equivalent rise in salary based on the policies of his employer, and how much that certification and its equivalent skills are measured within the organization. Also, it is determined by the country you reside in; for example, the United States has a higher salary scale with the five jobs listed above, compared to Canada. CEH positions are challenging, interesting, and play exceptionally well, aspiring professionals to consider CEH as an excellent career booster.

If you want to get off from the beaten track, have a sharp eye for solving issues and a passion for security, the CEH certification is an excellent way for you to moveforward in your career.

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Is CEH Certification Worth It?

CEH is one among the most popular, oldest, and first certification that can be planned for ethical hackers. A person who has obtained a CEH v10 certification would be a skilled expert who can perceive on how to look at vulnerabilities and weaknesses in target systems and practices the identical knowledge and tools as a spiteful hacker but in a more legit and lawful manner to assess the security aspect of a target system.

What is CEH Certification?

The CEH certification validates that individuals as certified in the particular network security system of Ethical Hacking from a vendor-neutral perspective. Having CEH certification notifies the people that the certified individual satisfies minimum criteria. It also helps strengthen ethical hacking as a particular and self-regulating profession.

The CEH v10 syllabus designed to help you to think like a hacker. After all, if you want to be a hacker, you must think like one! This will allow you to protect against likely attacks. This certification will put you in control with a hands-on environment with a precise method. You will be exposed to a distinctive way of acquiring optimum information security position in their organization.

If you’re interested in the cybersecurity field, the CEH certification is a significant investment based on the expertise you’ll obtain alone. Beyond gaining technical knowledge, CEH v10 is also a valuable certification for your career growth.

Here we are listing three great reasons to achieve your CEH certification.

1. Boost Your Payscale

The primary reason to earn this certification is to receive a higher salary. With an average CEH salary starting at around $38k and going as high as $133k, you’re sure to see a hike in your paycheck. Getting your CEH certification can help you obtain a quick promotion at work and qualify you for other higher-paying positions when you’re looking for a new job.

After comparing this against the CEH certification cost, it’s easy to notice that earning CEH is worth an investment that will instantly pay for itself and then some. If you can get your exam fees paid by your employer, or paid for by a third party funding source, it’s a cakewalk.

Of course, CEH doesn’t have to be where you stop on the track to career growth. With this certification and some experience, you’ll do well on your journey to earning your CISSP certification and other certifications that can quickly accelerate your earnings into triple digits.

2. CEH Certification satisfies DoD Compliance Requirements

If you want to work with the Department of Defense (DoD) world, becoming CEH certified is a must. The DoD demands all of its Information Assurance officers be confirmed before operating important information and network security. EC-Council’s Certified Ethical Hacker certification meets the DoD requirements for the CSSP Analyst, CSSP Incident Responder, CSSP Infrastructure Support, and CSSP Auditor roles.

Read: CEH Certification: Disclosed as One of the Best Certifications for the Cyber Security Field

The DoD is having difficulty getting enough qualified applicants to fill these positions, which is why certifications like Security+ and CEH are so prevalent right now. With DoD contractors all across the United States (and abroad), getting CEH-certified presents a special kind of job security irrespective where life takes you. With demand at an all-time high and professionals with the required certifications in such insufficient supply, you can be sure that the salary for these DoD contractors will remain to rise.

3. Achieve Exceptional Job Security

The rate and severity of cyberattacks are rising and creating billions of dollars of damage to organizations the world over. According to the Ponemon Institute, “the average price for small businesses to wipe up after their businesses have been hacked stands at $690,000; and, for middle-market companies, it’s over $1 million.” Against costs like this, it becomes quite cost-effective to hire cybersecurity professionals who can defend company assets before they’re attacked.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Information Security Analysts have a phenomenal 18% job growth opportunity by 2024, much faster than average for all organizations. DoD contractors, cybersecurity defense firms, and large organizations are creating a vast and growing market for qualified cyber professionals which practically guarantees employment now and well into the future.

Conclusion

With ethical hacking and data security more vital than ever, it is the right time for IT professionals to earn CEH v10 certification. It will not only improve your job prospects, but it can be done cheaply and quickly.

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