Internet frauds and online scams arise in recent years. Industries spend a lot to secure their network infrastructure against these cybersecurity threats. According to Statista, “Spending in the cybersecurity industry reached around 40.8 billion U.S. dollars, with forecasts suggesting that the market will eclipse 43 billion by 2020 as the best-case scenario, taking into account the coronavirus (COVID-19) impact.”
Small businesses spend bigger budgets per year on consumer cybersecurity products to protect themselves. Some remark say “It can take as long as 50 days from when a breach is discovered until the time it is reported – a huge risk for organizations.”
There is a rapid growth of unaware internet users worldwide and studies suggest that (8) new internet users are added every second worldwide. This is the best time for the attacker to target more victims through emails, chatrooms, websites and applications.
How to be safe from Internet Scammers?
- Know whom you’re dealing with and don’t believe promises of easy money.
- Be careful about unsolicited emails and do not share your personal information.
- Avoid downloading unknown software from unsecured websites.
- Protect your online privacy by using private browsing in your browsers.
- See if your email address included in data breaches for the past years. (ex. monitor.firefox.com)
- Installation of plugins against pop-ups and cookies.
- Protects data in transit by encryption using secured SSL websites.
- Install the latest software patches and anti-virus protection.
Insecure HTTP Usage
Another risk of attacks in using a public Wi-Fi network that pop-ups in a public place or an unknown third-party connection you’ve never heard of. This will help the attacker finding more victims like Man-In-The-Middle attack using Ettercap Utility.
Or they will give you a page wherein you will sign-in a form before you can access the internet.
In some attackers, they will use a tool like Wireshark to check the activity within the network. They will be able to see your credentials used for log-in in unsecured websites.
In the example, the credentials where sent and the cookies will pass in HTTP redirect. An attacker might use a Wireshark to follow your HTTP stream and search your credentials that pass through HTTP protocol.
You can check unsecured pages like Web-Scraper-Testing-Ground to test too.
How I do I know if the website has SSL?
Check in the web address bar of your browser and make sure that the website address has HTTPS or check if it has a lock image and says connection secure.
So, STICK WITH HTTPS!
Disclaimer: The example above is for awareness and educational purposes only. *
