Discover the Top 12 Fun Facts About Internet Safety: Stay Protected & Amused!

1. Trojan Horse Inbox

Has your inbox ever felt like a trojan horse? Fear not, you are not alone in this digital battlefield: Data from the 2019 Verizon Data Breach Investigations Report shows that 51 % of data breaches involved malware, with 66% of those sneaky infections hitching a ride though malicious email attachments.
Source => cloudnine.com

2. Gift Card Romance Scams

Love may be a battlefield, but there's no hearts and flowers in this battlefield, only gift cards for romance scammers: In 2021, one in four victims reported losing money to their fraudulent lovers through these shiny tokens of affection, amounting to a whopping $36 million in total losses.
Source => ftc.gov

Did you know that there are ethical "white hat" hackers who use their skills to protect systems from the dark side? Discover their fascinating battleground tactics!

=> Fun Facts about Cyber-Security

3. Cybersecurity Unicorns

In a world where hackers and data breaches lurk behind every click, it seems the ones meant to save us are as rare as unicorns feasting on a moonlit buffet of pixels and binary code: The global cybersecurity industry is grappling with a staggering shortage of 3.4 million qualified professionals, even after adding 11% more jobs in 2022 alone. But don't expect a superhero landing – job descriptions are often too broad and demanding, deterring potential candidates and contributing to a homogeneous workforce with 78.5% men in the US and an average age of 42.
Source => thenewstack.io

4. Cookie Monster Invasion

Beware of cookie monsters lurking in your digital pantry: Marketing cookies can slyly track your online activity and build a profile of your preferences, potentially compromising your privacy. To shield yourself, disable cookies in your browser, use add-ons that block trackers, and keep your anti-malware software updated. As a rule of thumb, if a website's cookie request gives you the heebie-jeebies, it's best to abandon ship.
Source => devoteam.com

5. Cyber-Rollercoaster of Breaches

Hold onto your digital hats, folks, because we're riding the cyber-rollercoaster of breached data: 2019 has seen a gut-wrenching 54% increase in reported breaches compared to mid-2018, with a 52% rise in exposed records, and three gargantuan breaches having already made it to the Internet Safety Hall of Doom this year.
Source => pages.riskbasedsecurity.com

6. COVID-19 Cybercrime Tsunami

Grab your virtual armor and assemble your digital Avengers, for a cybercrime tsunami is upon us: A staggering $6 trillion will be lost annually to cybercrime this year, with a 600% increase brought on by our dear COVID-19. Brace yourselves as malware-slinging baddies and dastardly web-based attacks reign supreme, costing businesses around $2.4 million on average to fend off. With over 18 million malware-infested websites lurking each week, it's a virtual battleground out there, making internet safety and cybersecurity essential gear for your online survival kit!
Source => labvantage.com

7. Sticky-Fingered Email Pirates

Hold onto your inboxes, cyber scoundrels are on the prowl: More than 400 businesses are targeted daily by email-wielding hackers, and over the past three years, they've swiped a whopping three billion dollars from businesses worldwide. Stay sharp, verify email addresses, and don't be fooled by sticky-fingered sentence slingers with suspicious grammar skills - because these cunning cyber pirates are proving emails to be the ultimate loot bag due to the difficulty to trace them.
Source => dailymail.co.uk

8. Social Media Ex-Spectations

Love might just be a game of ex-pectations: Research by cybersecurity company Specops Soft reveals that 27% of people confess to snooping on their ex-partner's social media accounts with Instagram being the favored platform for nearly 70% of sleuths. Most snoopers – 60% – are driven by a quest to uncover whether their former partner has found new love, while one in 10 admitted to seeking vengeance, and 7% simply wanted to know if they had been blocked.
Source => au.lifestyle.yahoo.com

9. Mobile Banking Trojan Takeover

Roll out the red carpet for the "trojan horse" of mobile banking, because it really banked on trouble in 2013: Mobile banking Trojans were dubbed the "trend of the year" for malware, but fear not, America's valiant mobile SMS messages remain unscathed from monetization scams and Trojan domination, while bots collecting data on infected smartphones take center stage in the malware threats arena.
Source => computerworld.com

10. Fake News Beware

Next time you encounter a scandalous headline, hold your horses before hitting "share": According to an Ipsos survey, a whopping 86% of online users have been exposed to fake news, with nearly as many admitting to having initially believed it to be true. Among the most common sources of this sneaky misinformation are social media, websites, YouTube, and even television, with Facebook taking the dubious crown as the top offender. So, navigating the digital seas of news requires a captain who knows their way around reliable sources and can steer clear of deceptive clickbait.
Source => ipsos.com

11. Password Tic Tacs

In a world where passwords are like Tic Tacs to hackers, flavoring and spicing them up might just save your virtual bacon: did you know that using the same password for multiple accounts is basically a welcome mat for hackers? Venture Beat suggests using a random word sequence with at least 12 characters for a stronger password, and a separate one for each website. Pro tip: password managers can become your personal digital butler for such tasks. A seven-character password can be cracked in a mere 0.29 milliseconds, so better bulk up on those characters for some solid online security!
Source => ngpf.org

12. Big Bad Wolf Passwords

Little Red Riding Hood would be proud: using a password as tough as the Big Bad Wolf huffing and puffing down a brick house is the ultimate way to fortify yourself against cyber threats. It's advised to create passwords with at least 12 characters, mixing uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers, and symbols, while a trusty sidekick called a password manager assists in securely guarding these modern-day magic incantations.
Source => arxiv.org