How to Protect Yourself from Online Attacks 

Cyberattacks have become widespread in the last few years. They have been corrupting the companies’ confidential data and ruining their reputation forever. No matter how big or small a company is and no matter how strict a security system they have installed in the workplace, online attacks can occur and destroy everything. 

It has been seen that the majority of cyberattacks occur due to the negligence and fraudulent activities of the employees working in the organizations. To prevent that from happening, many companies have deployed monitoring solutions in the workplace. Employers hand over company-owned smartphones to their employees after installing a phone spy app on their devices. 

When employee monitoring solutions are installed on their devices, employers can stay alert about their activities and keep an eye on them during working hours. They can know what they are doing on the internet, who they are talking to, what sort of messages they are exchanging with others, etc. 

In this post, we are going to discuss the common types of cyberattacks and also provide some helpful tips that can follow to protect yourself and your organization. 

Phishing Attack

A phishing attack is one of the most common online attacks these days. A phishing attack occurs when the attacker gets in touch with you pretending to be someone you know or a company you completely trust or when someone manipulates you to provide them personal information, click on a malicious link, or open an unreliable file. 

Most phishing attacks happen through emails, phone calls, text messages, and direct messages on social media apps. The phishing message usually comes from a person or organization you really trust. The messages from the attacker usually have a sense of urgency to them. You cannot ignore the message just so easily; you have to take it seriously and act on it without thinking too much, consulting some other person, or looking more about it on the internet to check if it is not fake. 

The majority of phishing messages include a link to a website or an attachment. The website could be a fake version of a trustable site, designed only to trick you into entering your account credentials or other personal information, so the hacker can steal your information. The attachment could certainly be malware that can corrupt your important data. 

How to Protect Yourself from the Phishing Attacks?

Here is how you can protect yourself from phishing attacks:

• You need to carefully look at all the messages that require your immediate attention. You need to pay close attention to the email address of the sender. If the email claims to come from your bank but the sender’s email address does not belong to your bank’s domain name, then you need to be careful of that. 
• Do not ever try to open any links or attachments you receive in messages from someone; even if they come from someone you trust. 
• You can use software to block known phishing websites. 

Malware Attack 

Malware is a malicious program or software that is also known as a virus. This type of virus is designed to steal your personal information, cause identity theft, and use your device to attack other devices or perform several other malicious attacks. 

It is easy for the hacker to infect your device with malware. For instance, your device can easily be infected with malware if you click on a malicious link, download and open a file from an untrustworthy website, or open a malicious file attachment. 

Similarly, your device can also be infected with malware if you download and install a malicious app. This type of attack is known as ‘Trojan Horse.’ Another common type of malware is known as ‘Ransomware.’ This type of malware encrypts your files and then demands you pay the hackers to unlock the files so that you can gain access to them. Most hackers try to steal your personal data so that they can threaten to expose your information publicly in case you don’t pay them the ransom. 

If you ever become a victim of ransomware, the FBI recommends you not to pay the ransom to the hackers. There is no confirmation that the hacker will give you your data back once you give them the amount. Also, once you pay the ransom to the hacker, you may make yourself a target for further ransomware attacks in the future. 

How to Protect Yourself from the Malware Attack?

Here are some of the tips to protect yourself from the malware attack:

• Do not try to open the links or attachments that seem unsafe to you. You need to be extremely conscious about the apps you want to install on your device. You should only install reputable apps from reliable sources. Also, you need to be extremely careful about downloading applications or files from file-sharing or torrent sites. 
• You need to make sure your operating system and all the applications installed on your device are updated with the latest patches and fixes. 
• You need to download a reliable and professional antivirus or antimalware program on your device so you can protect yourself from malware attacks. There are plenty of antivirus programs out there so you can easily pick one. 
• If you suspect one of your employees might be engaged in carrying out a malware attack, you need to install a monitoring app on their device. Installing an effective and professional spy phone app on your employee’s device can help you in knowing what they are doing, who they are talking to, and what sort of messages/emails they are exchanging with others. 

Phishing and malware attacks exist. You cannot easily escape from them. These attacks can infect your devices and steal your company’s important information and then leave you with nothing. If you do not want to become a victim of any of these malicious online attacks, you need to take proper precautionary measures. You need to take all necessary precautions and follow the tips we’ve mentioned above to protect your company’s important data from various online attacks.