Understanding the Scope of Cyber Attacks & How to Stay Safe?

Scope of Cyber Attacks

It is common knowledge that we are constantly at risk from cybercriminals trying to get access to our private data. More often than not, a simple anti-virus like Avast, Kaspersky, or Norton would be required on the device to protect private information.

In recent times, the creativity that cyber criminals employ to get access to people’s data is growing rapidly – ensuring that antivirus alone cannot prevent them from gaining access to a targeted device. Luckily, most of these methods have been identified, and ways to prevent them will be identified later on in this piece.

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Top Cybersecurity risks facing the Public:

Password Theft

This is the most common way through which many people’s data get compromised. A lot of people use passwords that have a direct connection or emotional attachment to their lives to safeguard sensitive information. Often, this password is also used across several other websites. A cybercriminal can simply guess the said password or run codes that employ several attempts until they gain access to every account the person uses the same password on.

Cyber Criminals

Eavesdropping

“Eavesdropping” or traffic interception is a system in which a hacker, or third-party intercepts correspondence between two users, or a host and a user. This can be harmless or harmful, depending on whether or not the correspondence contains sensitive information that should not be made known to the general public.

Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS)

This is an approach in which the cybercriminals attack servers, be it private or public, by constantly loading the server with unwanted traffic. As great as traffic is for business, there is only so much the server can handle at once. Immediately the server is overloaded with requests, the server gets slows or even shuts down completely, along with the security measures put in place, allowing for free access for cybercriminals to steal sensitive information.

Effective Methods to Safeguard Private Data:

All of the aforementioned cyber threats cannot be prevented by antivirus software alone, but through the inclusion of other methods which are highlighted below:

Two-step Verification

Also known as sandboxing, this is the safest method of securing login pages. In case of a password breach, the second step will require the user to enter another one-time passcode which will be sent to a trusted and uncompromised device before being able to log in, and in doing so, safeguard sensitive information.

Employing the use of VPNs

Many websites on the internet have been compromised. Cybercriminals target websites with codes to steal user data once such websites are opened. Other times, they “eavesdrop” on transactions and information that may be transmitted between two users on the website. This is why everyone needs to protect themselves and their traffic by using trusted and secure VPN connections.

VPN Software to maintain privacy

Security for hire

It is common information that firms nowadays specialize in the protection of other companies’ data. These security firms deal in ensuring that all customer data is encrypted and secure, down to the tiniest piece of information like age. This is useful, in the case of DDoS, where the servers have been overloaded and have to be shut down for maintenance. The security put in place ensures that cybercriminals cannot access the data stored on the said servers.

It is also important to note that users should avoid using the same passwords for all login pages.

Conclusion

The highlighted points are not to disregard the functionality and effectiveness of anti-virus in the protection of devices but are to ensure that people remain updated on the new and various ways cybercriminals operate and how we can further protect ourselves from attacks which the antivirus scope does not cover.


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