Six Words Spotlight

Undergraduate and newly appointed Cyber Champion Aaron Deivaprakash chose Anonymity, Security, Liberty, Vigilance, Critical and Underutilized. Find out more about Aaron's thoughts on cybersecurity.   

...And now Aaron in his own words: 

From my perspective as a student, I see understanding Anonymity as being crucial to how we navigate our lives online. People can’t really be anonymous anymore. There’s always something left behind that is unique to you. And despite this fact, people still want to control the level of their online footprint and what they show on social media, for example. We can’t hide our presence completely, but cybersecurity is about minimizing the negative effect of that footprint. 

Security may seem overly simple and obvious but, stepping away from what that may mean technologically, this word is about the very personal feeling of protection and comfort. We, as students, are just getting our feet under us whether it’s about our identity, our future careers or life in general. Knowing we are safe to explore who we are and what we can do with our lives is so incredibly important. Without the assurances the university provides, what we can do next would be seriously diminished. 

Liberty is very much a part of this conversation because like security is about keeping us safe, it’s also about preserving our freedoms. We should shape our presence online to our liking and make active decisions about what’s out there. 

Vigilance is what we have to do as a campus to make sure we are safe. Much like our physical security, you wouldn’t leave things out in the open and not lock your door. No, you would make sure your wallet and keys are secure on your person, in your room or someplace safe. What we do online needs to follow that same rationale. We can be foolish and think cybercrime will never happen to me. 

Critical is how I see this issue at hand. It’s not like our lives are going less digital. People may like old tech like record players for nostalgia reasons, but nothing we are doing in this world is heading back to analog. We are just going deeper and deeper into digital spaces and because of this we can’t overlook just how extremely important cybersecurity is in our lives. 

Underutilized refers to how, despite all of this and just how much internet is everywhere and integral to our daily lives, people don’t know what they can do to protect themselves, like with multi-factor authentication (MFA) or Two-Step Login, using strong passwords, moving into passphrases. 

I believe that to elevate cybersecurity here at UC San Diego, we need to push the narrative of security to create a more informed public and instill more confidence in our campus populations about the great work the cybersecurity folks do here to protect students, faculty and staff. The more folks know the better they can be a part of the solution. I would love to see more incentives created to do this along with continued surveys to make sure people are heard and build greater exposure. Maybe we could create a scavenger hunt for cybersecurity… that would be fun and informative.

In the end, I see we need to increase confidence in new technology, like Artificial Intelligence (AI), and hopefully bridge the gap between what we can do now and what we can hopefully do with all the advances AI brings. Can you imagine how far we could take cybersecurity efforts then?