October 11, 2021

The 5 most common cyber attacks – and how you can protect yourself against them

Cyber crime is rapidly increasing, affecting individuals all over the world. Here are the 5 most common cyber attacks and tips on how you can protect yourself against them.

Data theft, espionage and fraud: The number of cyber attacks has increased rapidly in recent years. The amount of damages caused by cyber crime reported to the Internet Crime Complaint Center has rapidly increased, from 17.8 million in 2001 to 4.2 billion in 2020.

Not only are companies increasingly the target of criminal attacks, individuals are also increasingly falling victim to cyber criminals. By sharing personal data on the Internet and using various online services, users are making themselves the target of potential attacks. In this article you can find out where the most common dangers lurk and how you can protect yourself against them.

According to Verizon, personal data was involved in 58% of breaches in 2020. Despite the personal negative experience, it is surprising that those affected do not necessarily protect themselves better than before, even though your own behavior is essential in order to protect your own data and online accounts. That is why we have listed the five most common cyber attacks for you and give you tips on how you can protect yourself against them.

Beware of these cyber attacks

Phishing attacks

Phishing is the attempt to get personal information or account details of individuals with the help of fraudulent emails, messages, SMS or fake websites. Most of these messages contain a request to open attachments, click on links, download apps or reveal personal information (such as a password or address). Oftentimes, these messages and the websites they link to look astonishingly legitimate at first glance and use logos or information from well-known companies.

Identity theft

If attackers get access to the identification documents, payment, or account details of targetted individuals, they can use this information, for example, to make purchases on behalf of the injured party, sign up for subscriptions or set up user accounts. Identity theft is often preceded by a phishing attack in which sensitive data was obtained. Anyone who is affected by identity theft should act as quickly as possible, inform the affected parties, and report them in order to avoid greater damage.

Malware attacks

A malware attack is a threat to one’s own devices from malware that has gained access to your devices or networks, usually without your knowledge. This process attempts to gain access to personal information or to damage the affected devices. Users often fall victim to such attacks through unnoticed downloads, security gaps in your operating system, or the use of a public WLAN.

Social engineering

In social engineering, the attackers rely on psychological tricks and influencing a person emotionally. Often attempts are made to gain the victim’s trust via social media and thus to elicit personal information. The attackers may pretend to be a trusted individual or company, and encourage victims to surrender data, transfer money, click on a link or download an attachment that conceals malicious software.

Cyberbullying

Cyberbullying is understood as harassment, blackmail or threats to people in social media, forums, chats, online communities or via email. For example, defamatory photos or videos can be distributed, fake accounts can be created in the name of the victim that spread false information, or chat groups can be created to gossip about a person. This information is made available to the general public and is available online until further notice, which often increases the psychological suffering for the victims immeasurably. The fact that this poses a serious threat is underlined by new statistics, which show that around 15 percent of young people in Germany have already experienced cyberbullying as victims.

This is how you can protect yourself from cyber attacks

In order to protect our personal data and digital identity, we should observe the following basic rules when using the Internet:

  • Beware of emails: Check the sender’s email address carefully. Is the address really correct? If you are suspicious, take a close look at the information in the header of the email, because there you will see the sender and server from which the message was sent. If the email is from someone you know but strikes you as strange, check with the person in person. Phishing emails can often be recognized by their errors.
  • No clicks on links and file attachments: It is best to never click on links in an email that asks you to provide account details or passwords. For example, if “PayPal” asks you to update your details, go straight to the original website and look for the information there. If you can’t find it, it is likely a scam attempt. The same caution should be exercised when opening or downloading file attachments – viruses are often hidden in them.
  • Regular updates: Make sure that your operating system, browser and software are always up to date. Most updates include protection against newly discovered security holes. Outdated software is to cyber criminals like an open front door to a burglar.
  • Avoid public wifi. Using public WiFi opens the door to a man-in-the-middle attack. So never enter personal information or login data via a public WLAN and do not carry out any sensitive transactions.
  • Enable two-factor authentication: Setting up two-factor authentication for your online accounts can help protect your accounts from unauthorized access. Each time you log in, an additional code is requested in addition to the password, which you receive via a verified phone number, an authentication app, or by email. You can also use a hardware security key for 2FA.

Don’t forget to use privacy-friendly products wherever you can. This of course also includes Startpage as a search engine. Because the less personal data you share on the Internet, the better you are protected from attacks.

 

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