Right now, millions of hackers and scammers are at work to prey on their victims. They are after your Social Security number, bank account information and social media accounts. With this information they can steal your money and gain access to your friends.
The scary part is anyone can be a hacker. For as little as $3000, anyone can buy a complete kit. This kit does all of the illegal work for the criminal automatically. They just sit back and collect the cash until they get caught.
The best way to know how to stay safe is to know how hackers do what they do. Once you know that, you can counter their malicious acts. Here are a few strategies hackers use and how to prevent these attacks.
- Phishing scams – These are scammers that say you’ve won something. Or others might say you have a job offer. The catch is you have to send in personal or banking information, or pay a fee. Use common sense before reacting to any E-mail. Scammers want you to react quickly. If you think about things long enough you can see through them. Remember the saying ” If it looks to good to be true …”
- Using open Wi-Fi – You probably have a Wi-Fi network at home. Is it encrypted? If you don’t know the answer, then then it’s probably “no”. That means hackers, and neighbors, can connect to your network from outside. They can surf bad websites and download illegal files on your connection. You could get a visit from the police. Just take a few minutes to secure your network.
- Trojan horse- Many hackers want to slip a virus on your computer. Once installed, a virus can record everything you type and send it back to the hacker. One of the most popular ways to deliver a Trojan is a variation of the phishing e-mail scams. The key to defeat this tactic is with a good security software such as Daily Safety Check.