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In the past 3-4 months, the world has experienced some major cyber security attacks which have cost some heavy economic damage. In this article, I have compiled some cyber security facts.
Let’s have a look at some facts around the cyber security industry. One of these essential facts is the estimated annual cost for the cyber crime committed globally which has added up to 100’s of billions of dollars.Don’t fool yourself into thinking that this cost only comes from attacking organizations, banks and wealthy celebrities but people like you and me are also not spared.
Most wanted cyber criminals of the world On FBI’s list of Most Wanted cyber criminals, you will currently find 19 individuals, each being responsible for consumer losses ranging from $350,000 to more than $100 million dollars. They are from all over the world and has huge reward money for their capture.
For example, FBI’s Most Wanted cyber criminals at this moment are JABBERZEUS subjects, a group of individuals involved in a wide-ranging illegal corporation and scheme that installed without authorization, malicious the software is known as Zeus on the victim’s computers. This type of financial malware was used to capture passwords, bank account numbers, personal identification numbers and other confidential information needed to log into online bank accounts. Its modified version is Game Over Zeus and has infected as many as 1.2 million computers. How it affects you and what can you do to get protected:
Zero Day attacks can be powerful and very dangerous. If you keep up to date with major news in the cyber security industry which you can find by visiting the sites I wrote in the previous chapter, this might help you to identify attacks and know what to do about them.
Keep your software updated worldwide and take all necessary precautions to keep your data safe and secure The most expensive computer virus of all time Have you ever wondered how much damage a virus can cause. Let me give you a mind-blowing example of this fact.
MyDoom is considered to be the most expensive virus in the world and in cyber security history, having caused an estimated whopping financial damage of $38.5 billion. Social Media- a hacker’s heaven According to some stats, currently, there are more than 1.6 billion social network users worldwide with more than 64% internet users accessing social media servers online like Facebook and Snapchat etc to spend their free time and connect with their friends and family members. This is the sole reason why cyber attackers love social media.Users that spend most of the time on social networks are likely to click on the links posted by their friends which the attackers can use to their advantage.
Have a look at the some of the most popular types the attackers use on social media platforms; • Like-jacking: occurs when criminals post fake Facebook “like” buttons to web pages.Users who click the “like” button downloads a malware which the attackers use to exploit the devices’ vulnerability and hence steals the data. • Link-jacking: this practice is used to redirect one website’s link to another which hackers use to redirect from trusted website to malware infected websites that hide drive-by downloads or other types of infections.