Imagine that you get a notification, seemingly from a court. Worried, you download the attachment – and all your files stop opening. And to recover them, you are kindly asked to pay a tidy sum.
Or one not-so-fine day, Facebook rejects your password. A short while later, an email arrives from an unfamiliar address stating that your account has been hijacked and a ransom must be paid to get it back.
A person posing as a bank employee calls you to report a blocked payment and request that you verify your card details. You give the numbers from both sides of the card, and a few minutes later your salary is as good as gone.
What do these attacks have in common? They are all aimed at your money, that’s what. If you don’t pay attention to security, fraudsters will become a little richer at your expense. Sometimes, attackers use other people’s devices to earn money – without asking permission from the owner, naturally.
These are no abstract horror stories – absolutely anyone can have a run-in with cybervillains. Including you. About 15 billion spam emails are sent every day, many of which are not just harmless ads. In some countries the number of cyberattacks detected by our experts per month exceeds a million... And that’s just a tiny fraction of the worldwide total!
What do victims have in common? All of them used to genuinely believe they had nothing to fear, since they could not possibly be of any interest to criminals. If that’s your mindset, time to change it.
Not all cybercrooks target banks and large companies. Millions of simple users are much easier prey. Attackers have learned how to monetize anything you have in the digital world, from photos and files to correspondence and credentials.
Want to protect your money? Let’s start with devices and data.
Think that cybersecurity is complex? Not at all! Take our course, and you’ll understand how to guard against the majority of threats – without spending hours poring over textbooks.
What personal data is of no interest to cybercriminals?