Protecting your personal cybersecurity and protecting yourself from cybercrime is important for everyone who uses electronic devices. Cyber Crime Magazine predicts that by 2025, cybercrime costs will rise from $3 trillion in 2015 to $10.5 trillion worldwide. According to Cybercrime Magazine, cybercrime includes:
- Intentional data destruction
- stolen money
- Theft of personal and banking information
- theft of intellectual property
How do cyber attacks occur?
To avoid becoming a victim of cybercrime, it is essential to understand how cyberattacks occur and what you can do to avoid them. According to CompTIA, 95% of cybersecurity breaches are caused by human error.
One of the most common cyberattacks is the introduction of malware into computers and smartphones by hackers. Malware can infiltrate your computer or smartphone if you click on links in emails or text messages or visit fake his websites that look a lot like legitimate sites.
Users often get malware on their electronic devices without their knowledge. As a result, personal information may be leaked or resold, or malfunctions may occur in PC or smartphone services.
Additionally, hackers can send more requests to your network or server than they can handle. This is known as a Distributed Denial of Service (DDOS) attack. Networks and servers malfunction, which can be frustrating for personal users and costly for business users.
Related: LiFi: A Better Way to Ensure Computer Cybersecurity
fishing
Another common cyber attack involves phishing. According to Simpilearn, phishing is a prominent type of cyberattack in which hackers impersonate a trusted source via fake emails. When a user clicks on a fake email link, a virus is downloaded onto the user’s smartphone or home computer, giving hackers access to sensitive information and personal account credentials.
Such emails look very legitimate at first glance. The e-mail may contain the company logo or the name of the boss, and may be phrased in a manner very similar to past correspondence. An unsuspecting employee may open a link thinking it’s from a boss or colleague. Once the virus is downloaded, hackers can access sensitive information and cause serious damage to your company.
Hackers can impersonate state governments, federal agencies, social media sites, or retailers. These emails are usually designed to make users panic and act without thinking. It can threaten account closure or other issues that require quick resolution.
To avoid falling victim to phishing, never open email attachments that you cannot verify as legitimate. If you have any doubts about the legitimacy of an attachment, please call the email sender to verify, especially if you did not expect an email from them.
Carefully reviewing the content of suspicious emails can also help. Phishing emails often contain spelling and grammatical errors. Also, their web and email addresses may differ slightly from legitimate sources.
Other Ways Hackers Infiltrate Personal Cybersecurity
There are other ways hackers can try to compromise your personal cybersecurity. For example, hackers often try to figure out passwords. Especially if those passwords are something simple like “1234” or “password”. Ideally, create complex passwords with a variety of letters, numbers, and letters, and avoid using the same passwords on multiple sites.
Public Wi-Fi can also lead to cyberattacks. An unsecured Wi-Fi connection is an easy way for hackers to gain access to personal information transmitted over her Wi-Fi.
Install a virtual private network (VPN) if you need to use public Wi-Fi. Using a VPN offers secure end-to-end encryption and may be available through your virus protection provider.
Additionally, keep your antivirus software up to date. In addition to protecting your computer and table from viruses, Norton or McAfee antivirus software scans your device, deletes cookies, and clears trackers that make your device vulnerable.
Related: How to Maintain Cyber Security While Traveling
Common sense and education are key to maintaining personal cybersecurity
Overall, using common sense is beneficial in maintaining personal cybersecurity. Take your time and create multiple passwords for different websites. Don’t use passwords that are easy for hackers to guess. Please check your email carefully. Also, take the time to study new cybersecurity breaches reported in the news and learn lessons from them.
