Increasing cyber-attacks are certainly making us vigilant against them and henceforth cyber security has become an imperative practice. Cyber security includes every process/practice that help users protect their network against cyber-attacks. To know it further, it’s the technologies, software, applications or other proactive measures such as password protection, masking information, backup, etc., that we use to protect our systems from damage or unauthorized access.
This was a crisp rehash on cyber security. Having said that, there are several facts about this tiny yet giant term that can help an ordinary users secure their daily cyber life. Cyber security has become more significant than before. In our earlier post, we mentioned some cyber security terms that are vital for the time. Further, this post will throw light on cyber security facts that haven’t you haven’t known until now.
- Social Media is hackers favorite hacking hub:
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The Statistics Portal says, currently there are more than 1.6 billion users using social networks to connect with friends and relatives. With this enormous usage, social media becomes a hub for cyber-attacks. Hackers carry out these attacks through like-jacking, link-jacking, phishing and social spam. These attacks form a chain and pass on to users connected with the victimized user. Peeps usually trust their circle and tend to trap into wily attacks veiled in them. As per stats, more than 600.000 Facebook accounts are compromised in a day, with 1 out of 10 people losing access to their personal accounts.
- Social engineering is the newest way to attack users:
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Another tactic used by hackers to trap users is social engineering. Social engineering refers to psychological manipulation of people for them to perform certain actions or divulge confidential information from them. Further, intruders gain access to your system/network with such activities. Social engineering includes activities such as phishing and pretexting.
- Government makes you more vulnerable:
Government around the world are creating more malware than ever. This ratio has particularly increased in last 5 years. This also gives an opportunity to hackers to develop more viruses/malware program.
- 99% of computers are vulnerable to exploit kits:
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99% of computers have vulnerable software installed such as Adobe Reader or Adobe Flash or Oracle Java. These software are likely to get affected by viruses since they carry critical vulnerabilities. A single click on a malicious advertisement give hackers power to hijack your system and perhaps, your data. Keeping a tap on regular updates of such software can help users protect themselves.
- Map to Track real-time cyber-attacks:
You can view real-time cyber-attacks all around the world through this map, put together by Norse. The map shows the areas’ most prone with cyber-attacks.
- Hacktivism is the driving force for cyber-attacks:
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Hacktivism is performed for all good reasons and leave a rather positive impression on our minds. However, hacktivism accounts to half of cyber-attacks that are launched in the world. While the process is conducted promote a political agenda, yet if it done by the wrong peeps it leaves negative impact instead.
- More funds are being lost in the name of unrecoverable cyber-attacks:
The average time to detect a malicious or criminal attack comes to 170 days, according to a global study sample. According to Heimdal Security, “The same research conducted by the Ponemon Institute found the average annualized cost of cyber-crime incurred by a benchmark sample of U.S. organizations was $12.7 million, representing a 96% increase since the study was initiated 5 years ago.”
- Biggest Cyber-security threat of the time Ransomware:
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With 2016 passing by, we have all witnessed Ransomware attacks surfacing in the year. There was a surge of 500% in the malicious attacks in 2016. With that been said, 2016 was designated as the year of ransomware by security researchers and it indeed proved to be!
- Cybersecurity spending to exceed $1 trillion from 2017 to 2021:
Currently, more than $80 billion are spent on cyber security products and services. Although it isn’t clear if this amount includes spending on IoT. However, global spending on cybersecurity products and services are predicted to exceed $1 trillion over the next five years, counting from 2017 to 2021.
- Organizational Threats:
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While we talk about hackers practicing hijacking online, there are insiders who also tend to harm organization. There are about 59% of employees who steal corporate data for personal gain. Having said so, other insiders also leak organization data. These particularly include exploited insiders and careless insiders. The former are tricked by outsiders to provide data, while the latter simply press the wrong key and accidently delete or modify critical information.
These are some of the cyber-security facts that helps us have rather clear understanding about cybercrimes and the security we need now. With ever intense attacks proliferating in the time, each of us need more security than ever!