Threats and solutions to online security in australia

Threats and Solutions to Online Security in Australia

7 Mins Read

PUREVPNOnline SecurityThreats and Solutions to Online Security in Australia

Australia’s ultimate vision for the future involves a hyper-connected, digital world.

In theory it sounds brilliant, but since it depends on making use of digital technology, it means that Australia also needs to strongly mitigate cyber security risks and threats that come inherently with the internet.

At PureVPN, we share the same vision for the future and this is why we have dedicated our time and services to help people in Australia ensure that their privacy, security and anonymity is protected against every digital threat.

Many myths exist too regarding online security in Australia. It is necessary to eliminate them as well if Aussies don’t wish to endanger themselves.

How Australia fared digitally during the past three years?

2014:

Data breaches in 2011 caused some experts to name it the “Year of the Data Breach.” Little did they know it was only just the beginning! 2012 and 2013 saw hackers surpassing their own evil benchmarks. Shockingly, there were more than 552 million identities exposed in 2013 alone.

This mammoth figure represents an increase of 368% in data breaches over 2011. Some of the worst cyber attacks in history were witnessed in 2014. These include the iCloud celebrity hack, cyber attack on Home Depot and the data breach at Target.

2015:

The trend of cyber attacks continued in 2015. AFP reported that more than 3,500 cyber attacks on Australia were from foreign countries. One can only imagine what the figure would be once you add the thousands of cyber attacks originating internally from Australia.

In December, Australia was struck with a foreign cyber attack which was massive, to say the least. The Bureau of Meteorology was attacked, compromising sensitive systems across the Federal government.

The bureau owns the largest number of supercomputers in Australia. The bureau confirmed that it would require millions in dollars to recover from the co-ordinated attack.

2016:

Aussies were attacked with yet another major cyber blow in 2016. This time, the innocents donating to blood banks became the target. Australian Red Cross Blood Service was cyber attacked, and the private data of thousands of individuals was exposed by the hacker.

This breach led to the data of 550,000 Australian citizens (out of 1.3 million available records) posted online and made public. This data included the private information such as the address, contact details, blood type and details of previous donations of people hacked. OnlinesecuritythreatsAustralia

How to improve Online Security in Australia?

A recent report by The Attorney Generals Department concluded that between 750,000 and 900,000 Australian citizens fall victim to identity theft every year.

Furthermore, the same report revealed that Australians lost more than $93 million to cyber theft in 2012 alone. This is only a conservative figure since many scams are not even reported.

Let us show you some widely encountered online threats in Australia. We’ll also guide you as to how you can safeguard yourself against them.

Social Media Threats:

As of now, the preferred and the easiest platform for hackers to carry out their illegal activities is social media. This is simply because of the sheer numbers of users present there. Due to careless use of social media and inadequate security measures, it’s no wonder that the number of data breaches has nearly tripled since 2011.

socialTherats

 

How to make social media safer?

Being careless on social media is like inviting hackers to access your device so they can check out your browser’s history and similar kind of other information. Hackers access your system by tracking your IP, but if you are connected to PureVPN, even the best of hackers won’t be able to isolate your IP and hence will not be able to access your device.

Know more about social media security here.

Mobile Security Threats:

Mobile is the new computer. People today are ditching their laptops in favour of tablets and smartphones.

Not letting this opportunity go to waste, hackers and government spy agencies have shifted their focus on hacking and monitoring smart gadgets. Unfortunately, the increased adoption of smart devices resulted in 38% of mobile users experiencing cybercrime in 2013. The numbers are only rising each year.

 

mobilethreats

How to negate mobile security threats?

The security of mobile devices can be compromised via various methods. For example, hackers can easily hack into and compromise the data being transmitted to and from mobile devices if they’re not encrypted.

PureVPN secures your mobile by securing your Wi-Fi connection and by encrypting the data moving to and from your device. PureVPN supports encryption algorithms of up to 1056-bit keys to make sure that you always remain protected.

Learn more mobile security tips here.

Wi-Fi Security Threats:

Hackers love free Wi-Fi hotspots. They love to connect to them and hack any communications going to and from them. Regardless of where and by whom the Wi-Fi hotspot is hosted, it can easily be hacked provided that the hackers can access it.

To get an overview of how careless we are when it comes to Public Wi-Fi security, read our blog-post on how you can remain safe using a public Wi-Fi network.

wifiTheaft

 

Get optimum Wi-Fi protection:

To protect your devices from getting monitored or hacked via a public Wi-Fi hotspot, it is always recommended to install PureVPN on your device. PureVPN changes your IP address to another location, thus making you anonymous.

It further provides you with encryption, making it impossible for hackers to monitor or access you device, even if they do manage to locate it.

Credit Card threats:

The horrific part about credit card theft is that the thief does not necessarily need to get hold of your credit card physically. Cyber thieves only need basic information such as the number of your credit card, the expiry date and pin-code, to destroy you financially.

 

How to protect your information?

Credit card information is easy obtainable by hacking into someone’s device or by attacking a website and emptying its database. PureVPN protects your information by making sure that hackers find it impossible to isolate your system or device, and it does so by keeping your anonymous, and behind a secure firewall of encryption.

Online Identity Threats:

If you think credit card theft is painful, buckle up because there is another threat out there which is even more dangerous. The day is not far when every device, including your refrigerator, air-conditioner, and electrical lights will be interconnected and will have all your information on it.

Now imagine if a cyber criminal somehow hacks into any of these devices?

idtheft

 

How to protect your identity?

In the real world, your name is your identity, but in the virtual world, your IP is your identity. PureVPN has a pool of more than 80,000 IPs from more than 140 countries. PureVPN is the best solution when it comes to protecting your identity because it masks your real IP, thus making you anonymous.

If you’re using PureVPN, no one will ever know where you came from or where you went, not even your Internet Service Provider.

Learn how to prevent online identity theft here.

Online Shopping Threats:

Shopping online has become more of a global pastime than a necessity. Although technology has made it simpler and easier for us to shop on a global level, our combined carelessness coupled with the evil intentions of hackers has made it very dangerous.

Online shopping not only requires you to be secure, it also demands security at the merchant’s end, since it his/her responsibility to protect your financially sensitive information. A single breach can allow a hacker to access your credit card information and use it anywhere he wants.

 

shoppingthreats

How to keep yourself safe while you shop?

First of all, it is necessary for you to shop on trusted websites only to ensure that you remain safe at the merchant’s end. Secondly, it is recommended to use PureVPN in order to ensure security at your end.

PureVPN has more than 450 servers setup all over the world to protect your private data, and it provides up to 1056-bit keys encryption behind a firewall of anonymity and security.

Know more about online shopping safety here.

P2P File-Sharing Threats:

The idea behind P2P file-sharing was convenience and the ease of transferring big files. With time, the idea was frowned upon by many governments which led to some countries banning it and others placing strict monitoring measures on P2P users.

P2P-Sharing

 

How to ensure your safety?

Firstly, PureVPN allows you to access P2P websites from any country in the world. Secondly, it makes you anonymous so you don’t have to worry about someone tracing your movements on P2P file-sharing websites.

PureVPN offers you more than 80,000 IPs from 140+ countries, along with advanced data tunneling protocols like PPTP, L2TP, SSTP, IKEv2 & OpenVPN (UDP 53, TCP 80) and up to 1056-bit keys of data encryption. In other words, PureVPN makes you digitally invisible and untraceable.

Understand the risks concerning P2P file-sharing here.

Many threats, one solution!

PureVPN not only protects you from the above threats but also ensures your safety in other cases. PureVPN acts like your digital bodyguard, working 24/7 to ensure that you remain safe and secure!

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author

Sheheryar Khan

date

June 20, 2023

time

9 months ago

Sheheryar Ahmed Khan is a privacy enthusiast, currently affiliated with PureVPN. His reporting covers subjects related to online privacy, anonymity, and security. Also a believer in online freedom, Sheheryar likes to spend his free time streaming football matches and TV shows online.

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