You have a strong password and you don’t open obviously malicious email messages. You may run a virus protection program to ensure your private information remains private on your computer. Maybe you even browse using a secure VPN. But are you really protected? And… what do you do on your phone?
I’m amazed at the number of people on FB that say, “I’ve been hacked again. Don’t accept friend requests from me.” Note the word, AGAIN.
Most Facebook accounts are hacked by phishing, but keylogging and stored passwords are also a culprit. Up and coming is sidejacking. Cookie and session hijacking from mobile users on a public network (think hotels, Starbucks, Walmart, etc.) is a HUGE concern — even for tech savvy people.
Y’all know there are people/computers that do nothing but attempt to steal information. But it’s getting worse daily. Lemme give you just one example…
This website does not have a database of users. I don’t sell anything here and for sure don’t accept payments of any type. IP addresses are logged but no identifying information is gleaned. I run ZERO ads. Heck, I don’t even have a contact form!
No clue why, but this site gets a moderate amount of traffic. Typically more people visit here than visit our corporate website. It’s a target for hackers that want to inject inject cross-site scripting (XSS) — insertion of malicious links. It’s why I removed the option to comment, etc.
But hackers gotta’ hack.
From 9:00 AM this morning until noon, my security program mitigated 125 malicious activities — primarily probing for vulnerable code… some for rest API.
Moving forward, the only thing we can do is not take our online safety for granted.
Pay attention to what you click. Run antivirus on your tablets and phones. Be careful what you do when connected to a public network. Don’t be stupid. 🙂
“Human Stupidity, that’s why Hackers always win.”
― Med Amine Khelifi