21st century cyber threats and how to combat them

Technological advancements in the 21st century have made so many things possible that we would never have even dreamed of. Just ask us over at Winzum… We would never be able to offer our tantalizing range of online competitions without the development of the Internet! What a crying shame that would be, eh?

But seriously, the technology explosion over the last few decades has been absolutely unparalleled. However, aside from the good stuff, it has also resulted in its own set of threats that we all have to be acutely aware of.

We love helping out when it comes to online safety, as one of our main objectives other than offering a range of juicy online competitions is to keep our wonderful online competition community as safe as possible. At Winzum we even created a guide for you [The Winzum guide on how to stay safe online], but we thought we would elaborate even more, so keep reading for a lowdown on the most dangerous 21st century cyber threats.

Phishing

Phishing is by far the most common way for nasty cyber criminals to try and get access to your computer through malware or malicious links to fake websites. In essence phishing is a way that criminals can effectively bait (yes, like real fishing) members of the public into mistakenly handing them over things like bank account passwords and other sensitive data.

Phishing scams will most frequently come over email, so we all have to be extremely careful when it comes to reading through your emails. Typically a phishing email will appear as if it is from a real company, Amazon for instance, but on closer inspection you will be able to see that the email address is actually from somewhere else. There are more ways to combat phishing scams here [the best ways to stop phishing scams].

Computer viruses

As far as online safety goes the most widely acknowledged danger for us all are computer viruses, mainly because these get a bit more of a mention in popular culture in contrast to other things like phishing. Computer viruses do have the potential to be incredibly hazardous though, so it is always a good idea to have a solid grasp of what they are, where they come from, and how to stop them.

The majority of computer viruses infect a computer because somebody has downloaded a file from an untrusted source, which is why it is never a good idea to browse websites you don’t trust. Torrenting is a particularly dangerous area for computer viruses – sure you may be able to get some free music, movies or software, but it could come at a price… The best way to combat computer viruses is to invent in some quality anti-virus software, at Winzum we found the best ones here [some of the best antivirus software].

Online financial fraud

Financial fraud has been around since pretty much the beginning of intelligent human civilization, however nowadays it is much easier to enact due to the many possibilities that the Internet has made available. It is incredibly important for us all to realise the dangers of things like PayPal fraud, for example, as being on the wrong end of it can quite literally ruin lives.

By far the most important thing to do in order to combat financial fraud is keep all of your online banking passwords safe, as this is the easiest ways for criminals to steal your well-earned cash.