Ever since the inception of the internet, people have been falling victim to cyber criminality. Black Friday and Cyber Monday are popular times for criminals to carry out their activities, although it can happen at any time.
Cyber criminality was always going to rise as the world moves further online. With that, comes the inevitability that online criminals would look to adjust their methods and adapt accordingly. There are new forms of technology coming out all the time, therefore giving cyber-criminals the edge too.
With the world spending more time indoors at the moment, classic cyber criminality practices have been catching people out. One minute, someone could be surfing the web for some Christmas shopping ideas or exploring a list of the most popular online arcade games at mansioncasino.com/uk like Buffalo Blitz and Gaelic Luck, only to open a malicious email without a second thought. Sadly, it’s common, and it can happen to anyone.
What are the most carried out methods of attack to look out for, though? Without further ado, here’s a look at some of the common methods cyber-criminals tend to use at the moment. If people stay informed on the most common cyber attacks, they can help keep them at bay better.
Phishing
Phishing scams are nothing new, but they’re still being used today. Essentially, phishing is a way in which a hacker can trick someone into clicking a malicious link, downloading an infected attachment, or by unintentionally sharing personal information, such as bank account or any login details. From there, the criminals can then clean a bank account out or monitor someone while they’re surfing the web. One of the spookiest cyber-crimes there is, there’s a few different variations of phishing too. You can receive a phone call, a text message, or an attack such as a Spear Phishing attack which essentially is the specific targeting of people in order to obtain their financial information or any insider information, too. Stay aware of these types of attacks and you should be able to fend off any potential attempts.
Ransomware
Ransomware is malicious software that criminals look to infect on people’s computers. The ransomware might stop people from accessing important files, it might help the criminals to issue threats of releasing their personal information without receiving some sort of a payment, or it can infect a computer, and from there a hacker can have their way with it. Businesses are mainly targeted, although thousands of people from around the world have fallen victim to this horrific crime also.
DDoS Attacks
A DDoS attack occurs when a hacker attempts to disrupt regular web traffic and essentially crash a website by overwhelming the system, the server or the network, therefore giving the criminals the chance to conduct any criminality they might be after, such as stealing important information. Many businesses regularly test their IT infrastructure to avoid such attacks, but it can still happen regardless.
Computer viruses
They’ve been around for years, but computer viruses are still very much happening in today’s modern world. They’re more powerful than ever, too. To avoid a virus infecting your computer, avoid opening unknown email attachments, clicking random files, visiting infected websites or advertisements, and plugging in any infected devices to your computer such as a USB stick.
IP Spoofing
IP Spoofing is used by attackers who are trying to access a system. They can do so by convincing a system that it is communicating with a trusted entity. People are usually targeted via a sent packet from the criminal. If accepted, the online criminal has a way in.
Jack Smith works as a freelance author varies greatly, ranging from writing books to working for print and online media as well as PR work.