Internet Threats

Have you ever had your Facebook page hijacked? Ever gotten replies or bounced messages for an email you know you never sent? What about losing access to your email because someone changed the password without you knowing?

The last thing most of us want to think about is the risks we face when browsing the Internet. I sometimes find myself looking at those ads that pop up on sites as I look for interesting ‘news articles’. Then I remember the many cases where friends or family experienced Internet calamities like those above, or worse. What I hope to do here is want to do is cover some real threats, how they work, and what you can and should do to protect yourself.

The Weakest Link

We’re curious and we’re gullible. When I was still working, we tested system and personal vulnerabilities. I was always amazed at the number of people that fell for the faked email sent to test personal susceptibility. People were always opening or responding to phishing emails or emails with “malware” attachments. So, let’s talk about those malware-laden emails.

You get an email with a picture or video attachment and some catchy message that entices you to open and look at the attachment. Unfortunately, that promised video of a cat doing gymnastics also had some computer code or HTML along with it. When you clicked and opened the image, you also activated the code.

Impact

The code was somewhat harmless itself because it just opened a background connection to a website someplace. But then it downloaded a larger and more malicious program onto your computer that installed itself on your PC or Mac. As a result, your security was compromised. Let me tell you about a real case of this that happened to someone in my extended family.

One day they could not get into their web banking account. We tried resetting the password online with no success. Frustrated, we called the bank customer service to reset it over the phone. Guess what – the account was locked down.

Not a creature was string…

Malware was installed on the computer at some point in time. Maybe it happened when browsing a ‘fashion’ website, or maybe it was a click on that kitten email. Regardless of how it happened, the computer had malware. Then early one morning, while everyone was sleeping, a ‘bad guy’ used the malware to connect up to that computer. They opened the browser and connected to web banking. To make life easy, the friendly computer had the login/passwords auto-populate, and poof, the ‘bad guys’ were in the bank account!

Fortunately, the bank’s security systems detected some anomalies in the session. Those security tools shut down the connection and disabled the account. It could have been worse, a lot worse.

Bad Actors and Dangerous Stuff

‘Bad Guys’ have been taking advantage of COVID-19 to target us with malware. These guys send emails disguised as legitimate messages about COVID-19. You’re told to ‘click a link below to learn more…‘. However, the link ends up installing malware that copies the files on your device and steals your personal information.

Right about now you may be asking yourself, what can you do in the face of all these threats? Or maybe you just want to throw your hands up and surrender. My advice is to relax. Most of us adapted to COVID-19 with more hand washing and masks. You should use similar precautions to protect yourself from these Internet viruses… a little behavior change.

What to Do?

First – don’t panic. Second, check out my recommendation in the What to do? post.