Though you install the powerful anti-virus on your computer and use strong firewall rules, you cannot stop this unless you get some awareness about the type of attacks and how they are executed.
As a part of our self-claimed responsibility, Amfas Tech always tries to bring awareness about the online scams, hacking, computer, mobile and online security issues from time to time.
Let us see some major type of hacking techniques used by the hackers on the internet along with their preventive measures at their best.
Online Scams – Hackers always feed on victims ignorance and desire to earn easy money online. We have also seen some famous online scams in the past while we are discussing online security. Of them, email scammers are the most famous ones. You cannot expect to stop receiving this kind of emails because of the security vulnerabilities in the technologies.
There is a misconception that the victims are old aged people but the statistics show 30% of those victims are youngsters under 30 years of age.
There is a cybercrime control center, the Internet Crime Complaint Center (www.ic3.gov) that works along with FBI(Federal Bureau of Investigation) and NW3C(National White Collar Crime Center) to eradicate these cyber hacks. In 2013 alone, quarter-million complaints were registered as per the annual crime reports of IC3. What about those who never complained and those who don’t know how to?
Rather than clicking links in emails, book your frequently used website links like insurance company, bank etc.., and use those bookmarks every time you visit that site.
Don’t fall for the unknown lottery ticket and fortune transfer scams. Think about it a second before you respond to them. How could you think an unknown person would transfer his million-dollar fortune to you? Be smart!
Phishing – We have talked about phishing so many times in the past and also have seen a demonstration of how can a facebook account can be hacked using the technique. The theme of the demonstration is the reason for the major icloud hack that happened on famous celebrity digital devices in the recent past. Can you think that a device which is protected by the security protocols and powerful encryptions technologies be cracked simply? No! never unless you are careless.
In the case of an icloud hack, there is nothing wrong with the Apple side but the users. The celebrities have fallen to the phishing links and the world started blaming Apple. A phishing site is actually an imposter of the original website to snatch the sensitive details like credit card information. The hacker designs the website to look like the original one and baits an email to the victim. The victim then hurries to keep his/her account safer which is not actually.
Do check the URL of the site twice(including the spelling) on which you are going to punch your sensitive data like password and credit card information. Use 2-step verification process to make any transactions online. Using mobile and email verification codes makes it harder to hack.
Generally, sites that take credit card information would be secured with SSL security over HTTPS protocol. Also, check for it before you do any thing drastically.
Massive Data Breaches – The above two methods practiced by hackers focused on an individual victim whereas the massive data breaches cost the privacy loss of a number of individuals collectively. Hackers target POS systems to hack the data in bulk. Computes at retails stores and small companies should be protected against such breaches. The recent “Backoff” virus is pure proof of vulnerability in POS systems. The recent hacks of Home Depot, Target, and other major retailers have compromised millions of credit cards and revealed their information.
Hackers will sell the bulk hacked data in internet forums to those who are willing to buy. The recent happening of Russian hackers selling out millions of Gmail IDs along with passwords on the internet has been found to be one of the major hacks of the year 2014.
So as to keep the databases like retail systems secured, Microsoft has already suggested businesses to upgrade to latest operating systems in the past. But still, a number of businesses cannot afford to get an upgradation. Also, it is necessary to host your data in secured dedicated servers that serve data on proper authentication only. The reason why I said the dedicated server is because there should be no sharing of computing and storage resources that may raise conflicts in case of wanted security to your data.
Upgrade your businesses to secure servers. Choose a right company that can provide you right solution to keep your data safe. Because maintaining security of data is showing your loyalty to customers.
Using very unique transaction passwords and monitor your credit card and financial statements from time to time might help you keep conscious at least about the hacks.
October is awarded as the National Cyber Security month by the FBI of San Diego division this year. Regarding the event, the FBI has advised implementing some security measures to keep yourself safe online. Go through their instructions also to learn more about online security.
SingleHop, the cloud hosting services company took a campaign to spread the word of online safety and has been encouraging bloggers by providing necessary useful information in PDFs to spread the same through their blogs.
Amfas Tech wishes all the best to SinlgleHop and we’re proud to be a part of the campaign. #StaySafeOnline.
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