More human than it seems

Discover what makes us vulnerable on the Internet

More human than it seems

Axtel’s Jesús Álvarez discovers what makes us vulnerable on the Internet

There are instruction manuals to learn to do most things: a new language, playing an instrument, using a tool, give maintenance to a car. But who teaches us to use the Internet safely?

This is Jesús Álvarez’s and his teams mission. As Director of Information Security at Axtel they must convey how to use the powerful World Wide Web safely in a world that is increasingly full of threats.

Him and his team clearly know that basic protection like a top notch antivirus or defining best practices isn’t enough to create a true Internet safety philosophy. They must look beyond information security: a more human vision of something that was initially totally technical is necessary. They must know how to read motivations and emotions to determine risks. Then they can become concepts that people digest and adopt.

“What makes you click on a suspicious email?
With these types of questions, you understand that as humans we get carried away by emotions”.

And precisely making these threats digestible is the most complicated. Before, cyber danger was like entering a dark alley: you knew that if you logged on to certain pages or clicked on certain links, there would be consequences. Now in the most “lit up” and apparently innocent place on the Internet there are dangers we cannot see.

The consequences of an attack are no longer so obvious, as well. Before, our computer stopped working, warning screens appeared. Today, with techniques such as ransomware or callbacks there is no feedback that something is wrong. There is no hot plate that prompts us to remove our hand.

An important task for Jesús and his team is to make the invisible visible, to let people know about the very real consequences that are out there even if we don’t see them.

“That hunger you have for something makes you vulnerable:
they are understanding how we work and that is what they exploit”.

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