Getting an online account hacked is a very modern nightmare. It’s the equivalent of the fear of a burglary in days gone by – a crime that can cause you to lose everything while you are not looking. Instead of coming downstairs to see the front room raided, you log on to a device and see the damage wreaked upon your private accounts.
The threat looms large for everyone on the internet, from casual users streaming music to large businesses handling the data of thousands of customers.
Yet, despite the fact that hackers are growing in sophistication and ambition, too many people know too little about the different dangers they might face while operating online.
Internet security expert McAfee has launched ‘The Ultimate Guide To Security Threats’ in a bid to help all web users get up to speed with the safety essentials they need to avoid the most common threats.
You can explore the guide below:
Takeaway
So, now you know – online security is not a kid’s play. Seriously speaking, it should be placed on your Top 3 most important thing to do for ensuring your business growth and continuity. You simply can’t afford the costs of the aftermath.
Before you go, to recap, here are some ‘scary’ statistics from the interactive infographic on the state of today’s online security threats:
- Viruses account for 57 percent of computer security threats worldwide – the most among the rest, followed by Trojan Horses (21 percent).
- How much damage caused by a computer virus? The most expensive computer virus’ aftermath is not accounted in millions – it’s in billions. How much is the most expensive one? Try GBP 26.7 billion. Insane.
- How many Trojan Horse attacks have we seen so far? In China back in 2010, there were 480,000 Trojan Horse attacks in total.
- The worm is quite dangerous – and expensive: The Morris Worm (1988) infected 10 percent of all computers that are connected to the Internet.
- A more dangerous worm, Code Red Worm (2001) infected more than 500,000 servers worldwide, causing $1.6 billion worth of damage.
- 45 percent of all emails are spam (in my case, it’s 75 percent or more), with 2.5 percent of them is fraudulent – phishing attempts are the typical fraudulent uses of email spam, make up 73 percent of the total fraudulent spam.
- Malicious mobile adware incidents grew by 33 percent in the fourth quarter of 2015.
- 60 percent of spyware passes on details of your internet browsing habits.
- Unmitigated DDoS attack could cost a business $40,000 – per hour.
- The number of phishing sites increased from 24,864 (2014) to 33,571 (2015).
- 23,095 botnet-assisted DDoS attacks were reported in Q1 of 2015 alone.
Pass them around; share them with your boss and colleagues; act on them. Hackers, scammers and the rest of the guys/gals know that you don’t really care about your IT security, particularly cyber security. – that’s why they succeed in many cases.
Repent, and start getting serious about your online security.