With every advancement in computer technology comes a new wave of cybercriminals hoping to take advantage of vulnerabilities in the operating systems. As long as we’ve had hardware we’ve had the need for software protection. Making sure your computer’s security programs are up to date is essential for allowing you to safely surf the net. Here’s what you should be keeping an eye out for in the coming year:
Social media sites like Twitter could become a prime target because hackers find it easier to sneak in malicious web addresses that are being shortened by URLs. What might look like an interesting tweet or photo download could actualy be a portal to a cyber attack. Your operating system might crash and you could find yourself suddenly swamped with spam later.
There’s also a chance that cybercriminals will be able to hack into a lot of mobile devices because of a lack of security encryption on those sites. As you roam, so do cybercriminals. This might be more of a threat for corporations that allow staffers to carry sensitive document downloads on their Blackberries.
With the exploding apps business, there is also the chance for attack of the killer app. These could be used to set up your iPad or iPhone as a botnet server for some nefarious activity that you wouldn’t even be aware is happening until it is too late.
Of course there remains the constant threat of emails and corrupted files being sent across cyberspace. By now we should all know not to open or download any file being sent from an unknown source. Just because cybercriminals are on the prowl doesn’t mean we can’t stay protected. There are plenty of powerful security programs we can use for all of our devices to make sure they aren’t vulnerable to a cyber attack. We just have to make sure we use them!