In fact, in just the first four months of 2021, the US was already experiencing 25% more digital fraud than the previous year, and it didn’t get much better from there. As the consequences of poor cybersecurity continued to become a part of everyday online life, and to paraphrase GI Joe, understanding how they work is half the battle. Over the course of the year, Tech.co has covered a wide range of scams, from ransomware and phishing attacks to fake vaccine surveys and cryptocurrency hacks. In this article, we’re going to round them all up to help you understand how to avoid them in the new year. A bait attack is a low-threat attack that doesn’t even try that hard to scam you. It’s often something as simple as an empty email with an innocuous subject line like “Hi” or “How are you?” However, if the user responds to the email in any way, it informs that scammer that you’re someone ripe for the scamming. It starts with a potential scammer attempting to convince your mobile carrier to send them a new SIM card, often with a combination of stolen data and readily available personal information. If they succeed, they’ll be able to set up any phone with your credentials, giving them access to a wide range of your sensitive information. Just a few weeks ago, a rash of these SIM-swapping attacks hit everyday users with the goal of emptying out cryptocurrency accounts. One victim reportedly lost up to $80,000 in Bitcoin. There, of course, was no such reward, with all of the information provided in the survey and, of course, the credit card number used for shipping sent to a nefarious third-party. If you know anything about YouTubers, it’s that they love to collaborate. This scam takes advantage of that by sending fake collaboration emails for anti-virus software, VPNs, music players, photo editing apps, or online games. Once the victim clicks on the collaboration opportunity, the scammers hijack their account, selling it to the highest bidder or using it to broadcast other scams. The scam was pretty widespread too. Propagated primarily through Gmail at first, Google announced that its Threat Analysis Group (TAG) had blocked 1.6 million emails from the campaign to protect its YouTube brethren, and displayed 62,000 Safe Browsing phishing page warnings, blocked 2,400 files, and successfully restored 4,000 accounts.” This scam found WordPress users inundated with an admittedly alarming message, which states that their information is encrypted, and they’d need to pay to have it unencrypted. The thing is the message was a fake. No data was encrypted, and the message could be bypassed easily. Still, the countdown and generally threatening look of the message was enough to convince at least a few to pay the ransom. The lesson here: always check if your data is actually encrypted when a ransomware hack occurs. Because Excel is so low on the priority list of potential threats, emails with mysterious links to spreadsheets were able to eke by blockers into inboxes. The cells of the spreadsheet were then filled with “lightweight embedded macros,” which wreaked havoc on your computer if you activated them. When it comes to mysterious links, we implore you to fight your instincts and never click on them. In fact, avoiding links in emails that aren’t from people you know is your best bet in the long run. By impersonating the platform with some very convincing design choices, the scammers would insist that pictures taken and stored by the user on Google Photos would be used on a poster promoting the platform. As soon as you click on any of the links though, the Google facade is dropped, and you’re sent to fake giveaway and rewards scams. In the event you actually follow through, you’ll be asked to provide financial information, which of course, will be used to steal your identity and your money. In 2021, early predictions showed that phishing scams would be even more prevalent, and the means by which these phishing scams are propagated have been elaborate to say the least. Ransomware is not nearly as conspicuous as phishing scams, but there are still some interesting ways in which cyber criminals will infect your computer with this vicious malware. The best way to hold on to your Doge and your Eth going into 2022 is to stay vigilant and avoid any nefarious deals that might be riskier than they’re worth. Password managers are a great place to start. Not only will you be able to ensure that your credentials are securely protected from nefarious actors, you also won’t have to remember all those pesky passwords. Talk about a win-win! Antivirus software and VPNs are a good next step as well, as they can protect you from malware, tracking, and other questionable tactics used in the tech industry. Finally, if you’re a business struggling to manage cybersecurity and remote workforces, remote access software is designed to help you work from home without the threat of hacks. All those tools are great, but your most valuable asset when it comes to cybersecurity is your own vigilance. If you take a closer look, most scams are incredibly easy to spot, as long as you take the time to do so. Good luck out there, and we’ll see you in the 2022 with a whole new batch of scams!
