Dr Vasileios Karagiannopoulos explains ‘cyber’ world crime and how we can protect ourselves
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The Truth About Cyber Security And Cyber Crime Ft. Dr Vasileios Karagiannopoulos
Right now the UK faces a heightened Cyber Threat, with increased fears of state-backed attacks to critical national infrastructure. But what does this mean for people, organisations and businesses? And how can we protect ourselves against Cyber Crime in general?
As a Reader in Cybercrime and Cyber Security at the University of Portsmouth, Dr Vasileios Karagiannopoulos works across disciplines of law, politics, society and education to carry out research.
In the latest episode of the Life Solved podcast, he explains what we mean by crime in the ‘cyber’ world and how we can protect ourselves and our organisations. Vas says we all need to play our part in keeping systems and services safe:
The weakest link in the chain can compromise someone who has put some effort into their cybersecurity.
An enormous number of UK businesses are small to medium enterprises, and this is where research suggests more work is needed to educate and defend companies from weaknesses and potential attack. Vas is driven by seeing the impact his work can have upon organisations and individuals in the real world and has been working with Hampshire Constabulary as well as the National Cyber Security Centre in order to educate everyone on how they can make their businesses secure.
The Cyber Ambassadors Project helps young people in Hampshire schools and colleges to take the scaremongering out of cyber education and build positive values around helping young people stay safe online:
The idea is that young people in schools and colleges are trained in cyber crime awareness-related issues. And then they organise activities in the schools and colleges.
In addition to this nationwide and regional work, Vas has been involved in Project Orpheus, an EU-funded international collaboration to tackle radicalisation in the online space:
It's a four year project focusing on online and offline counter-radicalisation of young people, so essentially trying to help young people avoid going down the path of violent extremism by educating them on online media literacy, fake news, propaganda and a lot of other activities.
To Vas, cybercrime isn’t just a matter of law or technology, but a human rights issue. From freedom of expression to privacy and access to information, making the internet a safe place for us to conduct work, relationships and everyday communication is no small task.
The forthcoming Online Safety Bill aims to make the internet a safer place by updating legislation that protect people from harms. Vas believes that the vital work done by the Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice here at the University of Portsmouth can help make sure the internet is a safe, empowered and positive future for everyone.
If you’d like to find out more about Vas’ research, check out the podcast. You can also get tips to make sure your business is operating safely via the National Centre for Cyber Security.
You can listen to the full podcast from Tuesday 10 May 2022.
Search for “Life Solved” from the University of Portsmouth on your podcast app of choice, and why not share this story with a friend who might be interested.
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