Ransomware will Continue to Dominate in 2017!

It seems there’s no respite from the menace! 2017 is expected to witness an explosion of ransomware attacks—cybersecurity researchers say. If you haven’t taken any security precautions so far, then now is the time. With the boom of IOT it is possible that the hackers might be after all your electronic gadgets. The new year brings new ways for hackers to attack our systems—in ways which we can’t possibly imagine. The trend of attacks will only continue to grow.

From the beginning, ransomware has been successful because victims are usually willing to pay to regain access to their private data, although the amount differs based on geographical areas. According to a survey, the US consumers have shown more attachment to their data and a greater willingness to pay ransom than German consumers.

However, in 2017, experts predict an increase in professional and advanced attacks – which includes more of cloud infrastructure attacks– and the rise of data manipulation attacks, further underlining the need for a fresh approach to data security. Be it our iPhone, laptop, coffee machine, or Bluetooth speaker, our car and all other things, they are all connected in a digital way. As we all are a part of this hyper connected world, protecting your devices has now become an utmost priority.

Don’t Become a Victim–Say No to Bait!

Imagine you come home from work, settle on your couch, switch on your television and Bam! You see that it’s taken over and the only way to get it back is by paying ransom. However, theoretically not just your television, but a hacker can gain access to almost any electronic device to hold hostage. Not just Ransomware, then there’s phishing too! A lot of people are getting into it, as it’s easy money at low risk. At times, it becomes irresistible to refuse the bait and very swiftly we get trapped into big troubles. The latest sample of phishing attack nowadays are, when a user receives an email on his main account like Gmail or Yahoo notifying that an account has expired. Leading with one “Click Here” message to refresh your account by simply filling in your credentials. A lot of users take this bait and fall into some serious trouble. A word of caution: Don’t buy the bait!

Well, of course we don’t want your evenings to be spent in this way. There are numerous ways to protect yourself from cyber criminals. If you haven’t gotten it by now, then it’s time to install a strong and secure PC suite to ensure an endpoint protection of your devices. Also, if you need to protect your home appliances then secure your home router as it happens to be the prime gateway via which all your devices connect. So if you protect that, you can keep your home safe from prying eyes poking around.

To know more about protecting your online privacy, read 7 ways to protect your online privacy.

Also, we highly recommend users to use an authentic and reliable backup service like Right Backup to secure their data. Right Backup is a simple and secure cloud storage solution which safeguards your valuable data. It helps you back up, share, restore and access your documents, photos, videos, music and more with a single click.

So if you’re one of them who believes in new year resolutions, then keep “Protecting your online privacy” on the top of the list. It’s never too late to make resolutions!

Watch out–Stay Vigilant—Stay Safe!