Cyber threats continue to evolve and with more people using the internet, malicious actors get more potential victims.
Today, we want to explore three potential cyber threats every user should be aware of. Actually one of them is not a threat per se but it’s annoying, nevertheless. And the good thing is that you can actually do something about it.
But I’m getting ahead of myself. First, I should add that we won’t be talking about viruses, but something else — you can read about viruses on many other places around the web. That being said, here are 3 cyber threats you should know about…
1. Cryptojacking
Cryptojacking is defined as the secret use of the user’s computer to mine cryptocurrency. It comes as a form of malware the user unknowingly installs which then secretly mines cryptocurrency.
In addition, there is also JavaScript-based cryptojacking software that uses the site visitor’s computing resources to mine for cryptocurrency while he/she is looking at the page.
One of the best-known examples was when superstar footballer Cristiano Ronaldo’s website was planted with malicious software, prompting millions of users to unwillingly make money for the malicious third party.
The easiest way to determine whether you’ve fallen victim to cryptojacking is to take a close look at your system resources tray. If you notice something suspicious here, like some services or program is consuming more resources than it should, then something might be amiss.
The common way to stay protected is to have your devices up to date at all times, to use anti-virus and, of course, a VPN — which will protect you against malicious JavaScript on pages across the web.
2. Phishing
Even though the media has been continuously warning users not to open suspicious emails, people still get scammed with phishing attacks.
The reason for this is simple – it is fairly easy for malicious actors to use phishing and wreak havoc. All they have to do is send a bunch of emails (typically millions) to users across the Internet and hope someone will be caught — it’s like real fishing when you think about it.
Once someone’s hooked, the hacker on the other end of the line may be able to access all of the user’s data along with proprietary information.
According to Dave Palmer, director of technology at cyberdefense company Darktrace, 90% of malware today originates in the inbox, disguised within phishing emails whose senders impersonate trusted colleagues.
So yes, this is serious and you should be watching out for emails coming from people you don’t know.
3. Ad-pocalypse
Not really a threat, but annoying nevertheless…
These days, you can hardly access two web pages or see a single 5-minute video on YouTube without being interrupted by ads. While we have nothing against websites relying on advertising to pay for content creation, we have to add that sometimes — they’re pushing it really hard. In fact, we find too many ads to be super-annoying, disrupting our overall internet experience. And this is especially true with some websites that want you to open new pages on and on, just so they could serve more ads.
Here, you can actually be proactive and, for instance, go for the websites where you have to pay for the content. This way, you will still support the content creation while benefiting from the better, ad-free experience.
On the other hand, not all websites offer this option and, for them – you may want to get an ad blocker. We’re not suggesting you should get one — cause that could ruin many legitimate websites relying solely on ads — but we do want to add that some VPNs include this capability. This ad-blocking capability won’t work everywhere, but it will work on many websites. We just had to add this here. 😉