Cyberspace has brought the world to people’s fingertips. Almost everything is at our fingertips through computer and cell phones – the most used devices in our daily life. The aim of cyberspace is to make things easier for human beings. Exchanging data, shopping, doing business and almost everything. But, has it made things easier or more complicated?

The IC3 says that 2019 complaints and dollar losses were the highest since the center began tracking cyber crime statistics in 2000. In 2019, the IC3 received and processed 467,361 complaints, and losses to individuals and businesses rose to $3.5 billion from 2018.

The above statement tells us that cyber crime is increasing day by day. It is also costing billions of dollars to governments and individuals. Just recently, the biggest soccer club in the world was held at ransom by unknown hackers. Hackers are everywhere and increasingly dominating every corner of cyberspace thus making it more difficult for all kinds of industries, not leaving behind the low income individuals.

Hackers do not care who their target is, what they want is money. They are heartless, dead souls living in a breathing body. Therefore, from entering the data to retrieving any kind of information from and to any electronic devices needs high level of precautions and an attentive mind. NEVER do or exchange any transaction or data if you are occupied or sleepy.

Recently in India, a hacker created a fake mobile gaming application to retrieve data from customers doing banking transactions. Many people were affected and some even committed suicide. The first and foremost tip is to remember that most hackers depend on YOUR allowance to access YOUR system because they do not know your password nor any of your personal details. They depend on YOU allowing THEM to enter your system.

In order to protect your data and personal details, one should minimize the number of devices used for transactions or for exchange of crucial information. For example, if you are doing bank transactions from a mobile phone, it is not a good idea to download other apps on that device. Games and browsing should be done in other devices or computers.

What is VPN? It stands for virtual private network and is a series of virtual connections routed over the internet, which encrypts your data as it travels back and forth between your client machine and the internet resources you’re using, such as web servers. In short, it is hiding your IP address so that your internet provider or the person you have been connected to, do not know your whereabouts.

But do you know who your VPN provider is? A VPN provider can access all your data and keep track on all type of traffics you have visited. Most VPN providers sale your data for revenues and can even expose your device to malware or fraud.

Crimes via PHONE calls: Never say YES. This is called “yes scam” that started in 2017. The hacker records your voice and makes transactions, and then claim that you agreed to authorize changes on a phone, utility, or credit card bill. Recently, an elderly couple in Toronto received a phone call from the same number they used to call their regular bank. The caller knew the exact amount they had in their deposit account, which was $7,000.00. They were told to immediately transfer that amount to another account number that the caller provided as that account was being terminated. The caller provided all the exact bank account details with the amount that was in the fixed deposit. The money was never recovered.

BUSINESS: Everyone nowadays is buying and selling online, exposing their bank and other essential details such as address, phone numbers etc. Never share any details if there is no “S” at the end of “HTTP” in the web link. This is because that site is not secure. Your details can be compromised by third parties and can cause you losses. Try not to entertain those online businesses which do not share their addresses or phone numbers.

An experiment was done on two gigantic online companies selling almost everything. One company was offering 24/7 phone and chatting services. When the agents were contacted about the details of the products the customer wanted to buy, they had zero idea. They did not know who the sellers were or if the products were genuine or not. It was found out that the calls were taken by an unknown call center, which could only access YOUR details. No help was provided if you were the target of any fraud. The other company did not provide any phone number nor any contact details. Everything was online.

Emails: When you receive emails from any unknown people never open them and mark as a SPAM. Phishing is the fraudulent attempt to obtain sensitive information or data, such as usernames, passwords and credit card details, by disguising oneself as a trustworthy entity. The offers and discounts are all but fake. They just need your personal details to con you.

Trending Porn. This modus operandi is very common in part of Asia and seeps to the whole world through crappy sites. Be very careful when booking hotels for honeymoon or when going for holidays with your spouse. Some cheap lodges and motels were found with hidden cameras to record couples physical intimacy or relationship. Some even go further to put cameras in bathrooms. Most of those lodges and motels are very difficult to investigate as they keep relocating themselves.