Are You Vulnerable Online?

A lot (and we mean, a lot) of your life is spent doing things online. Shopping, connecting with friends, uploading photos, some banking, watching the latest documentary… you get the drill. And now with many of us working from home, our online hours have increased tremendously with the emails and chat groups we’re using for work.

Which makes us open to a lot of cyber threats – stolen passwords, social media being hacked, phishing (you know, those “legitimate emails” from Netflix that look so real but in truth are a way to steal your data like your login credentials and credit card numbers). The reality is while the internet has made lives a lot less complicated, what we do online puts us at risk for many cybercrimes. Hackers and scammers take advantage of our online activities to get financial information as well as other sensitive details that they can use to their own gain.

You may think, a stolen password or two to an account you don’t use anymore, who cares. You should! Because with this information, the hacker can access other information that is important; whatever footprint you leave online inevitably leads back to you!

So what makes you vulnerable online? Your online habits below. See if you are guilty of any and what you should be doing instead.

#1 You open unfamiliar emails with attachment
Biggest no no! That’s the oldest trick in the book to phish someone and yet so many of us fall in this trap! The problem is, phishers are getting smarter so they send you emails that seem pretty relevant – someone trying to log in your Netflix from another region (it’s not real), a certain amount was taken out from your bank account (it’s fake!), a payment slip for a job you just completed (dubious this one and especially easy to fall for if you are a gig worker!). So you open the email (or attachment) from the unfamiliar sender and lo and behold, you need to enter some login or bank details to get more info… and voila! You’ve successfully shared your sensitive info to the phisher or the phisher has infected your computer with malware.

Do this instead! Don’t be too quick to open emails from unfamiliar senders, and don’t ever click on links or attachments that you have no clue what they are about. Instead, look at the sent email: Is there a misspelling somewhere that you would have missed if you didn’t pay close enough attention? Or if the email is from your bank, call the bank first to determine if the email is legitimate (99.9% of the time it’s not!)

#2 You love online games!
And hackers love you! You know those online games where you are to fill in forms to “share” your scores on your social media feed. Those are the ones you need to be wary about because from that form, the hacker can get a lot of information! Do this instead! Go easy on the online games. Hackers know that these games are popular hence they’ve come up with methods to score sensitive information by creating these games where users unknowingly share information they shouldn’t!

#3 Autofill… so easy!
And so vulnerable too! Sure, it saves a ton of time especially when you are a regular on that favourite online shopping site. But storing your name, address, phone number and credit card details (gasp!) makes you an open book to cybercriminals. There have been many accounts where websites are hacked and sensitive information are stolen to be used by cyber baddies. And there’s really nothing much you can do about it because you willingly shared all your details on the website!

Do this instead! Disable the autofill option on your browser and take the time to manually key in your credit card number when you shop online. Trust us, it’s a much better option than having to deal with your credit card being used to shop in Guangzhou (you’ve never even been there!)

#4 Ooohhh, let me upload that
Don’t we all love to share on our social media! But there is such a thing as oversharing and when you do that, you’re indirectly inviting strangers into your life! Strangers who will study all the information you shared and use that to crack your passwords (look, it’s my dog Chai! And here she is again – oh, yes, she’s also my password). At the same time, sharing your daily routine can make you vulnerable offline as well; that holiday post is basically telling potential thieves nobody is at home.

Do this instead! Disable location sharing, think twice about posting. Better yet, set your social media accounts to private if you can and only accept invitation from people you know!

#5 I can’t remember my passwords so I will just use the same for EVERYTHING Rookie mistake! What happens if someone manages to figure out your password and then tries it on other accounts? That would be making it too easy! Do this instead! At the very least, use different passwords for important stuff like banking and email. Or use a service like 1Password to create and remember unique passwords. Consider using two-step authentication to make it harder for someone to crack your password; it’s like a metal grille to your house!

Photo by Clint Patterson on Unsplash