A large portion of the world has already embraced the digital area. Not a day goes by without encountering a story of ransomware or a threat to your personal data. Popular security companies indicated that almost a third of computer users experienced a form of web attack while almost one million computers were infected with ransomware.
While these threats are overwhelming, they can be categorized to ensure that computer users can safeguard themselves. Below are some of the security threats you should beware of:
1. Medical Data Breach
Violation of data is common and has been among the popularly known security risks for many years now. Many big companies have experienced data breaches in recent years with most of their stored customer information being obtained. This trend is expected to continue and many retailers will keep on experiencing major security breaches.
Many hotels have also experienced data breaches in the past and the problem seems to be spreading to the medical industry. Studies indicate that the healthcare sector experienced approximately 92 security breaches two years ago.
As insurance providers and hospitals embrace digital practices, this trend will continue to increase. People will do all it takes to safeguard their financial information as opposed to their medical insurance records, which gives hackers an opportunity to access information before they can notice.
2. Smartphone Trojan Horse
Studies show that the average adult spends approximately 25 hours online weekly. A large percentage of these users are on mobile gadgets, which hackers are now targeting. You can easily get infected by downloading an application from suspicious sources.
Some of the biggest mobile breaches in the last two years were about Trojan Horses capable of getting superuser rights on infected Android gadgets. This kind of access enabled them to do various things such as disguise themselves in the system folder, install and launch multiple applications that exhibit advertising, and making it impossible to delete them.
3. Ransomware
Ransomware happens when your computer files are encrypted and inaccessible. The hackers will then give you an option of paying ransom to have your data unlocked or losing it all when you fail to pay up. Some security agents advise victims to pay the ransom for the restoration of their files.
Ransomware has been there since the year 2013 when the CryptoLocker virus emerged. It can affect multiple computers and mobile gadgets through applications, texts, and even mail which makes it a major threat.
However, ransomware only works when installed which means that companies can avoid it by staying away from suspicious downloads and phishing emails.
