Cyber Crime – A Threat to Every Internet User

<p>According to the Federal trade Commission &lpar;FTC&rpar;&comma; there are around 10 million reported cases of <strong>identity theft<&sol;strong> each year in the United States&period; A recent report by Eugene Kaspersky&comma; founder and head analyst of <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;google&period;com">Kaspersky Labs<&sol;a> &lpar;a leading internet security company&rpar;&comma; indicates that the level of <em>criminal activity<&sol;em> on the internet has doubled in the past year&comma; and there is reason to believe this trend will continue to grow exponentially in the future&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<div class&equals;"mh-content-ad"><script async src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;pagead2&period;googlesyndication&period;com&sol;pagead&sol;js&sol;adsbygoogle&period;js&quest;client&equals;ca-pub-9162800720558968"&NewLine; crossorigin&equals;"anonymous"><&sol;script>&NewLine;<ins class&equals;"adsbygoogle"&NewLine; style&equals;"display&colon;block&semi; text-align&colon;center&semi;"&NewLine; data-ad-layout&equals;"in-article"&NewLine; data-ad-format&equals;"fluid"&NewLine; data-ad-client&equals;"ca-pub-9162800720558968"&NewLine; data-ad-slot&equals;"1081854981"><&sol;ins>&NewLine;<script>&NewLine; &lpar;adsbygoogle &equals; window&period;adsbygoogle &vert;&vert; &lbrack;&rsqb;&rpar;&period;push&lpar;&lbrace;&rcub;&rpar;&semi;&NewLine;<&sol;script><&sol;div>&NewLine;<p><strong>Cyber crime<&sol;strong> has become a serious problem for everyone who uses the internet&period; The biggest threats to all internet users are malicious software programs known as <strong>crimeware<&sol;strong> and <strong>social engineering schemes<&sol;strong>&comma; often referred to as <em>phishing and pharming scams<&sol;em>&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Although computer viruses have always presented a big problem regarding potential loss of data or damage to our computers&comma; <strong>spyware and phishing scams<&sol;strong> are where the real danger is&period; These forms of internet crime don&&num;8217&semi;t hurt our computers &&num;8211&semi; they cause personal damage&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h2>What Are The Formulas Used n Cyber-Crime<&sol;h2>&NewLine;<h3>Spyware<&sol;h3>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;28213" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-28213" style&equals;"width&colon; 300px" class&equals;"wp-caption alignright"><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;fraudswatch&period;com&sol;cybercrime-6&sol;amp&sol;" rel&equals;"attachment wp-att-28213"><img class&equals;"wp-image-28213 size-medium" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;fraudswatch&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2016&sol;06&sol;Cybercrime-300x187&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Cyber Crime" width&equals;"300" height&equals;"187" &sol;><&sol;a><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-28213" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">Cyber Crime<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>The most common form of <em>crime-ware<&sol;em> comes in the form of <strong>spyware<&sol;strong>&comma; which is a small program or piece of code that is designed to &&num;8220&semi;spy&&num;8221&semi; on your online activity and&sol;or personal information&period; There are many types and forms of spyware and new versions are introduced into the internet every day&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Although not all spyware is used for illegal purposes&comma; much of it can be very dangerous due of its ability to record keystrokes&comma; take snapshots of our PC screen&comma; and monitor everything we do online&period; Spyware usually installs without anyone&&num;8217&semi;s knowledge and runs silently in the background&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The information gathered by spyware is secretly transmitted to the person who planted it&period; It is sometimes sent out via email without our knowledge&comma; but more often it is relayed to a hijacked &&num;8220&semi;slave&&num;8221&semi; computer&comma; where it is picked up by the criminal who installed it&period; He&sol;she will either use it to access bank accounts or credit cards&comma; sell it to another thief&comma; or perhaps steal our identity altogether&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Some <strong>spyware<&sol;strong> is used to &&num;8220&semi;hijack&&num;8221&semi; computers&comma; turning them into &&num;8220&semi;slaves&&num;8221&semi; that are used to collect and store data that was obtained illegally&period; The computer&&num;8217&semi;s owner rarely knows that his PC is being used to house illegal information&period; Many &&num;8220&semi;slave&&num;8221&semi; computers are also used to help social engineers collect data via <em>Pharming scams<&sol;em>&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h3>Phishing Scams<&sol;h3>&NewLine;<p>One of the most popular criminal activities on the internet is Phishing&period; In fact&comma; this type of scam is so prevalent that an estimated 99&percnt; of email users have seen at least one phishing scam in their inbox&period; Phishing is mostly done via email&comma; and is usually performed in conjunction with Pharming&period; Social engineers often send email letters that appear to come from your bank or other <a class&equals;"wpil&lowbar;keyword&lowbar;link" href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;fraudswatch&period;com&sol;tag&sol;financial-fraud&sol;amp&sol;" title&equals;"financial" data-wpil-keyword-link&equals;"linked" data-wpil-monitor-id&equals;"555">financial<&sol;a> institution&period; The message urges you to click the link&comma; log in&comma; and verify your credentials&period; These emails sound and look very legitimate&comma; and this is why so many people follow through by clicking the link&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h3>Pharming<&sol;h3>&NewLine;<p>Once a person has clicked a link in a fraudulent Phishing email&comma; they are taken to a website that appears to be legitimate&period; This is because the social engineer has copied the home page of the financial institution&period; What most victims don&&num;8217&semi;t realize is that the website they are on is really in some third world country&comma; or on a &&num;8220&semi;slave&&num;8221&semi; computer that has been hijacked by spyware&period; The Pharming occurs when the person enters his&sol;her credentials to &&num;8220&semi;log on&&num;8221&semi; to their account&period; This provides the Pharmer with all the information he needs to quickly wipe out the account or charge up a fortune on the associated credit card&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h2>How to Protect Yourself Online<&sol;h2>&NewLine;<p>There are several things you can do to protect yourself from cyber-crime&period; The most obvious is to use good internet security products&period; At minimum&comma; everyone who uses the internet should be using a good personal firewall&comma; anti-spyware software&comma; and anti-virus software&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The easiest&comma; most effective way for most home computer users to stay protected is to purchase an internet security suite&period; A suite will include antivirus&comma; anti-spyware&sol;anti-adware&comma; software firewall&comma; and possibly some extras like a spam filter and password protection software&period; Suites are easy to use because everything is controlled via one interface&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>There are many &&num;8220&semi;free&&num;8221&semi; things you can and should do to protect yourself from cyber-crime&comma; such as keeping your computer&&num;8217&semi;s operating system and all applications up-to-date&period; This combined with the implementation of cautious browsing and email habits will have a big impact on your safety&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h2>Cyber-crime Goes Social and Mobile<&sol;h2>&NewLine;<p>&&num;8216&semi;<em>Cyber-crime<&sol;em>&&num;8216&semi;&comma; a word most of us know&semi; but a better clarification on the same is good before we begin&period; <strong>Cyber-crime<&sol;strong> holds a broad array of activities or incidents&comma; some of which include computer viruses or malicious software&comma; forging&comma; spoofed&sol;fake email or website which captures personal details&comma; online bullying&sol; stalking&comma; hate crime or other form of online harassment&comma; hacking into personal profile&sol;account&comma; scams&comma; online credit card fraud&comma; identity theft&comma; an unsolicited SMS text messages&comma; and so on&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>As above&comma; <strong>Cyber-crime<&sol;strong> can be anything&comma; which includes data theft or breach&comma; without the owner&&num;8217&semi;s permission&period; As consumers go mobile&comma; so do criminals&period; Hence&comma; compared to the earlier attempts of <em>cyber-crime<&sol;em> over Desktops&comma; now attackers are more oriented on mobile and social networking&period; A mixture of socially engineered and blended attacks is what attackers are now using&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><strong>Cyber-crime<&sol;strong> over Mobile device News like &&num;8216&semi;iPhone 5 Pre-Orders Top Two Million in First 24 Hours&&num;8217&semi; displays how indispensable mobile devices have become for us today&period; According to the &&num;8216&semi;2012 Norton Cyber-crime Report&&num;8217&semi;&comma; every 2 of 3 adult uses a mobile device to connect to the internet today&period; The increase on mobile usage is also realized by the Cyber-criminals&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The bait that attracts cyber-criminals is not the vast usage of mobiles but also the numerous hidden vulnerabilities in them&period; Mobile vulnerabilities doubled in 2011 over 2010&period; That in itself is alarming&period; But apart from these facts&comma; the matter to worry more is the fact that 44&percnt; people aren&&num;8217&semi;t even aware that security solutions exist for mobile devices&period; Every 2 out of 3 persons don&&num;8217&semi;t have security for their mobile devices&period; Using unsecured Wi-Fi connections is yet another source of vulnerabilities&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Socially engineered Cyber-crime Apart from Mobile&comma; with increasing usage of social media&comma; cyber-criminals are also going social now&period; Figures say that&comma; every 4 people out of 10 people have been a victim of cyber crime through social sites&period; While some complain their accounts have been hacked&comma; others are concerned about their accounts being eyed upon&period; Apart from this&comma; 1&sol;3rd of the population using social networking sites have fallen victim to the scams on such sites&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The major reasons behind most attacks through social platforms are&colon;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>1&sol;3rd of the users don&&num;8217&semi;t log out from one session 1&sol;5th among the users don&&num;8217&semi;t check the link before clicking on it 1&sol;6th people aren&&num;8217&semi;t aware about their privacy settings&comma; and lastlyLess than half don&&num;8217&semi;t use any security measures to protect their accounts&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;Apart from these issues&comma; 36&percnt; users accept friend requests from strangers&comma; increasing their vulnerabilities&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>What can be done&quest; Social sites are taking a toll on our personal lives&period; Numbers say 16&percnt; would end a relationship&comma; as a reason of something they didn&&num;8217&semi;t like about the person online&period; Hence being on your marks and taking measures to ensure good privacy settings is helpful&period; Measures like deleting suspicious mails&sol;comments&sol;links&comma; use a basic anti-virus&comma; avoid opening attachments from unknown senders&comma; and so on&semi; can be highly useful&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Take pro-active steps to secure you personal data online&period; If you won&&num;8217&semi;t&semi; no one would&period; If something is too good to believe&comma; then you may be right&semi; I am talking about advertisements and applications appearing on social sites&comma; which trick users&comma; with lucrative statements and promises&period; Be on your guard by staying informed&period; Use strong passwords&comma; and make it a habit to change them often&period; Efforts taken by you to protect your data will surely increase the difficulty levels for criminals to attack you&period; Fear of attacks should never deprive anyone of the huge benefits of using internet through mobile devices and networking socially&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Hence ensure security measures and reap the benefits to your fullest&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><strong>Note&colon;<&sol;strong> Majority of figures&sol;statistics used in this article are from <strong>2016 <a href&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;us&period;norton&period;com&sol;cyber-security-insights">Norton Cybercrime Report<&sol;a><&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Talking about solutions&comma; to such Cyber-crime attacks&comma; Cyberoam Unified Threat Management appliances offer comprehensive security to small&comma; medium and large enterprises through multiple security features integrated over a single platform&period; It is the first UTM that embeds user identity in the firewall rule matching criteria&comma; offering instant visibility and proactive controls over security breaches and eliminating dependence on IP Addresses&period; Its&comma; Layer 8 &lbrack;Identity-based security&rsqb; Technology platform makes security simple&comma; yet highly effective&period; Cyberoam&comma; with its Extensible Security<&sol;p>&NewLine;

Cyber CrimeIdentity TheftPharming ScamsPhishing