The World Wide Web has a lot of goodies to offer. This, however, also includes various life changing threats such as Malware, Botnets, Spyware, Phishing Attacks, Viruses, Worms and Trojans.
The ever increasing threats on the internet make it critical for everyone to learn about all the dangers along with their solutions. So, here is a brief guide that explains what cyber security threats exist online and how you can protect yourself against them.
“We need a cybersecurity renaissance in this Country that promotes cyber hygiene and a security centric corporate culture applied and continuously reinforced by peer pressure”
Cyber Security Threats and Solutions
Threat: Malware
Malware is short for malicious software. It holds the capability of threatening a company’s day-to-day operations by affecting the network performance, computer performance, stealing data, etc.
Worms, viruses and Trojans are some of the examples of malicious software that are usually grouped together and referred to as ‘malware’.
How to Remain Protected From Malware
You can avoid malware threats by:
Threat: Rootkits and Botnets
A Rootkit is a program that is installed on a computer without the user’s knowledge, similar to malware. The program can be visible or hidden and may couple itself with a larger software package.
Botnet on the other hand is a terminology derived from the idea of bot networks and is simply an automated program/bot. The targeted computer is attacked via virus or malicious codes by botnet attackers.
What Should Be Done Against Rootkits And Botnets?
You can reduce the risk and protect your machine from Rootkits and Botnets by doing the following:
Threat: Spyware
Spyware refers to a program that sends users pop-ups, redirect them to various websites, and monitors browsing activity and so on.
How Can You Fight Spyware?
Threat: Viruses, Worms, and Trojans
Viruses, worms and Trojans are designed to infect computers of individuals or organizations. Some of the viruses can slow down computers, damage crucial data, shut down computers and crash operating systems.
Prevention from Viruses, Worms and Trojans
To battle (and win) against viruses, Trojans and worms, you should follow all the guidelines that were mentioned above under the spyware, malware, rootkits and Botnets protection headings. However, unfortunately, there is no particular method of figuring out that a computer is affected.
You should look for unexpected behavior in your machine and run trustable anti-virus programs to figure out if your computer requires a thorough clean up. However, once your system has been affected by any of these threats, here is what you should do:
Threat: Phishing
Phishing is done via e-mails and malicious websites. Mostly, an internet user is tricked into believing that the page in front of them is of a trustworthy organization or a firm. As a result, the recipient or user ends up giving away their personal/financial information.
How Not to Become a Phishing Victim
For example, you might mistakenly type www.faecbook.com instead ofwww.facebook.com, a phishing website might popup, similar to the real one, and gladly take all your data.
Final Advice
Cyber threats are ever-increasing and it is never too late to equip yourself with proper online security tools. So, what you can do to protect yourself online is to follow the instructions provided above and to also stay updated with the latest security updates from the experts on the internet.
Using a VPN is another step you can take to secure your online presence. A VPN provides you with the privacy and security you need by encrypting your online traffic end to end. Use the internet wisely; stay secure at all times.