Author: Caleb Townsend

Caleb Townsend is a staff writer  for the United States Cybersecurity Magazine. He has been crafting his passion for film-making and script writing since childhood. While not a tech person by training, Caleb has held a passion for journalism and writing, which he discovered working for his college newspaper. Caleb graduated from Eastern Mennonite University in 2017, receiving his bachelor’s degree for Digital Media with a minor in Journalism, and is now a full time employee of the United States Cybersecurity Magazine.

Password Safety: A Comprehensive Guide to Choosing a Good Password

Author(s):

Caleb Townsend, Staff Writer, United States Cybersecurity Magazine

by
Password guesses on a notepad. First two are bad passwords and the third one is a more complex password.

Password security is the most basic and ubiquitous form of cybersecurity. Every single account created online has a password attached to it. They predate the internet by hundreds of years and to this day, they remain the most reliable form of user authentication. So why does everybody choose such terrible passwords? What Makes a Password … Read more

Microsegmentation and a Zero-Trust Network

Author(s):

Caleb Townsend, Staff Writer, United States Cybersecurity Magazine

by
Server room, Microsegmentation in a zero-trust system

We are currently in an unfortunate situation where universally, every business model predicates itself around connectivity. In fact, to be on the edge of innovation is to connect, to everything, before anyone else connects. With each new development, security suffers immediately. The incredulity that is always met with a new Facebook data breach is going … Read more

National Cyber Security Awareness Month

Author(s):

Caleb Townsend, Staff Writer, United States Cybersecurity Magazine

by
National Cyber Security Awareness Month, binary code particles and neon glowing cyber wave. in modern server room

Each October, National Cyber Security Awareness Month rolls around. Sponsored by the National Cyber Security Division, this month encourages us to approach our digital lives with awareness and caution. The NCSA takes time this month to reach out to Americans with tips for cyber hygiene. Additionally, the NCSA provides educational guides to online security. The … Read more

Email: The Ultimate Phishing Hole

Author(s):

Caleb Townsend, Staff Writer, United States Cybersecurity Magazine

by
Hole in the ice, fishing line in the hole, boots to the side, email phishing abstract

Recently, we talked about the importance of questioning everything when it comes to cybersecurity; telephone calls, websites, text messages, snaps, any of these mediums are a forum for viruses. As the threats continue to change and grow, many people have started to become more aware of how widespread phishing has become. Phishing has grown in popularity, … Read more

Hacking Through History: Three People Who Hacked Without Computers

Author(s):

Caleb Townsend, Staff Writer, United States Cybersecurity Magazine

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Hand clicking on Morse Code, Cybersecurity History, Early Hacking

People usually attribute the history of cybersecurity to the Creeper. The Creeper was an infamous program that acted as the first virus in history. This 1971 virus was distributed to mainframe computers and possessed to ability to move around. The program was not malicious in anyway. The Creeper did no damage.  It simply would display … Read more

Cybersecurity Career

Author(s):

Caleb Townsend, Staff Writer, United States Cybersecurity Magazine

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Dark Lit Two Men Cybersecurity Career Engineer Lab

Cybersecurity is a growing threat. Last year, we saw 143 million Americans lost their personal, sensitive information in an Equifax data breach. This year, we saw Facebook allow our personal information to be mined by third party company without our consent or knowledge. In the year of 2016, the US. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) claimed that … Read more

Why People are Ditching Social Media

Author(s):

Caleb Townsend, Staff Writer, United States Cybersecurity Magazine

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Hand unplugging, unplug, social media detox

The Pew Research Center has released a new report that tracks the relationship people have currently with social media. It has been six months since Facebook revealed that they were allowing user’s information to be harvested by Cambridge Analytica. According to the report released by Pew Research Center, the debacle has turned a lot of … Read more

Cybersecurity Services

Author(s):

Caleb Townsend, Staff Writer, United States Cybersecurity Magazine

by
hand holding cloud connected to apps, raining information, cybersecurity services

There are a lot of common issues that plague your digital devices. Traversing the internet is no simple task in 2018. For example, one in thirteen web requests lead to malware. It is incredible likely that your computer will get a virus at some point in your lifetime. That likelihood grows yearly. This is seen … Read more

What is a Firewall and How Does it Work?

Author(s):

Caleb Townsend, Staff Writer, United States Cybersecurity Magazine

by
Cords plugging into a system firewall

Firewalls have essentially been around since the beginning of the internet. A firewall is a network device designed to protect your system by monitoring and controlling information traffic based on a preset list of rules to ensure security. Firewalls establish a barrier of protection between a trusted network and a foreign network. They are one … Read more