8 Digital Security Physical Issues: We spend most of our working career behind the screen of a computer or laptop and when we are not doing this for work we do it for pleasure, keeping up to date with all our social media or playing games and so on, this could create many complications for us, such as promoting obesity or heart disease, diabetes or even cancer. There are ways for businesses to help fight against this such as considering the lay out of the office, fitted chairs where you can change the height or even desks that provide a computable environment. Repetitive Strain Injury Syndrome: This is a syndrome that acres over time when the same muscle is used over and over or even bad posture, this puts a particular part of your body under a lot of strain and this could cause a lot of pain and discomfort. The most common ones known are: Carpal Tunnel Syndrome Tennis Elbow Trigger Finger Tendinitis Blackberry Thumb Ways that this could be prevented or kept under control are as follows: 1. Look at posture. 2.Slow down your mouse and use keyboard shortcuts rather Look at your keyboard; adjust the repeat rate to avoid mistakes, use sticky keys to avoid having to hold a modifier key down (Shift, Ctrl, Alt) 3. Take regular breaks an don't sit in the same position for long periods Eye Strain: Staring at a screen for prolonged periods of time can cause strain on your eyes that could lead to damaging them permanently. There are two types of eye problems that take place the first being computer vision syndrome, that takes place after over using your eye muscles and straining them, the symptoms include blurred vision, double vision, dry eyes, headaches, irritation of the eyes and neck or back pains. You can try to prevent this from happening by doing the following: 1. Cut the glare 2. Rearrange your desk so that your computer monitor is slightly below eye level, and approximately 50-70 centimetres away from the face 3. Give your eyes a break 4. Tweak your computer settings such as brightness or font size. The next type of eye strain we will look at is called eye fatigue and the symptoms may include: Red, irritated eyes Dry eyes Intermittent blurred vision when viewing your screen or device Blurred distance vision when looking away from your screen or device Headaches Neck and/ or back pain You can use the same methods as mentioned previously to help prevent this and also remember to get your eyes checked regularly. Another challenge of sitting for so long is trying to fight off obesity, in today’s time where there is so much to do and it’s all done on technology we find it hard to have time to cook healthy food so we resort to take away food and this can lead to an unhealthy lifestyle, we should try to remain fit and exercise as much as we can with the time we have away from the computer. Psychological Issues: These issues can sometimes be more of a challenge then the physical ones due to the fact that they are harder to identify, can happen without people knowing, easy to misdiagnose and so on. One of the key issues are addiction, this can happen even when no substance such as drugs are used, addiction is based on the over use or abuse of something such as gambling or the internet. There are a few sings of addiction and can be listed as follows: 1. Increasing amounts of time spent on computer and Internet activities 2. Failed attempts to control behavior 3. Heightened sense of euphoria while involved in computer and Internet activities 4. Craving more time on the computer and Internet 5. Neglecting friends and family 6. Feeling restless when not engaged in the activity 7. Being dishonest with others 8. Computer use interfering with job/ school performance 9. Feeling guilty, ashamed, anxious, or depressed as a result of behavior 10. Changes in sleep patterns 11. Physical changes such as weight gain or loss, backaches, headaches, carpal tunnel syndrome Withdrawing from other pleasurable activities Cyber Bullying: Studies have shown that more than half of today’s youth has experienced cyber bullying, this has a very negative phonological effect on an adolescent and could cause serious issues in the future. Cyber bullying allows for someone to be attacked or to attack someone in their own homes from behind their keyboard. The main reasons why people become bullies could be: 1.Strained parental relationships 2. Inconsistent discipline 3. Poor academic performance 4. in-supportive peer networks 5. Child abuse 6. Victims of bullies themselves 7. Low self-esteem On the other hand a victim of a bully could show these signs: 1.Low self-esteem 2. Signs of depression 3. Signs of being lonely 4. Has low academic achievement and absenteeism 5. Exhibits behavioural disorders 6. Exhibits psychological or psychosomatic problems, such as headaches, stomach pains, sleeping disorders 7. suffers from stress and phobias 8. Struggles to spend time alone 9. Avoids eye contact Cyber Stalking: This is a very real threat in today’s age due to all the social media at our disposal, cyber stalking involves someone becoming obsessed with the victim and then uses any resources at their disposal to follow this person and use this information against them. There are some similarities from proper stalking and cyber stalking, normally the victim is being stalked by someone they were previously intimate with, and the victim is usually a female and the stalker is driven by the desire to control or poses the victim. There are also difference between online and offline stalking, such as when stalking the stalker will need to physically be close to the victim whereas online it could be done across the country. It is also easy for the stalker to harass the victim and get others involved when it is done online. Some of the motivations for cyber stalking are: 1.Wanting a romantic attachment 2. A partner trying to reconcile 3. A partner wishing to exact revenge 4. Delusional or imagined attachment to the victim, romantic or otherwise 5. Revenge against an actual or perceived injustice 6. Intolerance, or even hate, for a specific group Stalking can have a number of effects such as: 1. Effects on physical health such as sleep lose or depression 2. Effects on mental health like the fear of being harmed when you’re alone. 3. Effects on work and/ or school, like not attending classes or refusing to see family members 4. Effects on social life

8 Digital Security

        

 Physical Issues:

We spend most of our working career behind the screen of a computer or laptop and when we are not doing this for work we do it for pleasure, keeping up to date with all our social media or playing games and so on, this could create many complications for us, such as promoting obesity or heart disease, diabetes or even cancer.

There are ways for businesses to help fight against this such as considering the lay out of the office, fitted chairs where you can change the height or even desks that provide a computable environment.

Repetitive Strain Injury Syndrome:

This is a syndrome that acres over time when the same muscle is used over and over or even bad posture, this puts a particular part of your body under a lot of strain and this could cause a lot of pain and discomfort. The most common ones known are:

Carpal Tunnel Syndrome

Tennis Elbow

Trigger Finger

Tendinitis

Blackberry Thumb

Ways that this could be prevented or kept under control are as follows:

1. Look at posture.

2.Slow down your mouse and use keyboard shortcuts rather Look at your keyboard; adjust the repeat rate to avoid mistakes, use sticky keys to avoid having to hold a modifier key down (Shift, Ctrl, Alt)

3. Take regular breaks an don't sit in the same position for long periods

Eye Strain:

Staring at a screen for prolonged periods of time can cause strain on your eyes that could lead to damaging them permanently. There are two types of eye problems that take place the first being computer vision syndrome, that takes place after over using your eye muscles and straining them, the symptoms include blurred vision, double vision, dry eyes, headaches, irritation of the eyes and neck or back pains.

You can try to prevent this from happening by doing the following:  

1. Cut the glare

2. Rearrange your desk so that your computer monitor is slightly below eye level, and approximately 50-70 centimetres away from the face

3. Give your eyes a break

4. Tweak your computer settings such as brightness or font size.

 The next type of eye strain we will look at is called eye fatigue and the symptoms may include:

Red, irritated eyes

Dry eyes

Intermittent blurred vision when viewing your screen or device

Blurred distance vision when looking away from your screen or device

Headaches

Neck and/ or back pain

You can use the same methods as mentioned previously to help prevent this and also remember to get your eyes checked regularly.

Another challenge of sitting for so long is trying to fight off obesity, in today’s time where there is so much to do and it’s all done on technology we find it hard to have time to cook healthy food so we resort to take away food and this can lead to an unhealthy lifestyle, we should try to remain fit and exercise as much as we can with the time we have away from the computer.

Psychological Issues:

  These issues can sometimes be more of a challenge then the physical ones due to the fact that they are harder to identify, can happen without people knowing, easy to misdiagnose and so on.

One of the key issues are addiction, this can happen even when no substance such as drugs are used, addiction is based on the over use or abuse of something such as gambling or the internet. There are a few sings of addiction and can be listed as follows:

1. Increasing amounts of time spent on computer and Internet activities

2. Failed attempts to control 

behavior

3. Heightened sense of euphoria while involved in computer and Internet activities

4. Craving more time on the computer and Internet

5. Neglecting friends and family

6. Feeling restless when not engaged in the activity

7. Being dishonest with others

8. Computer use interfering with job/ school performance

9. Feeling guilty, ashamed, anxious, or depressed as a result of 

behavior

10. Changes in sleep patterns

11. Physical changes such as weight gain or loss, backaches, headaches, carpal tunnel syndrome

Withdrawing from other pleasurable activities

Cyber Bullying:

Studies have shown that more than half of today’s youth has experienced cyber bullying, this has a very negative phonological effect on an adolescent and could cause serious issues in the future. Cyber bullying allows for someone to be attacked or to attack someone in their own homes from behind their keyboard.

The main reasons why people become bullies could be:

1.Strained parental relationships

2. Inconsistent discipline

3. Poor academic performance

4. in-supportive peer networks

5. Child abuse

6. Victims of bullies themselves

7. Low self-esteem

On the other hand a victim of a bully could show these signs:

1.Low self-esteem

2. Signs of depression

3. Signs of being lonely

4. Has low academic achievement and absenteeism

5. Exhibits behavioural disorders

6. Exhibits psychological or psychosomatic problems, such as headaches, stomach pains, sleeping disorders

7. suffers from stress and phobias

8. Struggles to spend time alone

9. Avoids eye contact

    Cyber Stalking:

This is a very real threat in today’s age due to all the social media at our disposal, cyber stalking involves someone becoming obsessed with the victim and then uses any resources at their disposal to follow this person and use this information against them. There are some similarities from proper stalking and cyber stalking, normally the victim is being stalked by someone they were previously intimate with, and the victim is usually a female and the stalker is driven by the desire to control or poses the victim. 

There are also difference between online and offline stalking, such as when stalking the stalker will need to physically be close to the victim whereas online it could be done across the country. It is also easy for the stalker to harass the victim and get others involved when it is done online.

Some of the motivations for cyber stalking are:

1.Wanting a romantic attachment

2. A partner trying to reconcile

3. A partner wishing to exact revenge

4. Delusional or imagined attachment to the victim, romantic or otherwise

5. Revenge against an actual or perceived injustice  

6. Intolerance, or even hate, for a specific group

Stalking can have a number of effects such as:

1. Effects on physical health such as sleep lose or depression

2. Effects on mental health like the fear of being harmed when you’re alone.

3. Effects on work and/ or school, like not attending classes or refusing to see family members

4. Effects on social life