Through the last couple of years, cyber security has become a much more talked about topic. Many of the threats we face are happening more often, becoming more complicated, and evolving every day. Sadly data breaches, malware, hackers, and viruses won’t be disappearing any time soon.

As companies, businesses, and cybersecurity professionals fight against these attacks every day, it’s important you keep yourself up to date with what kind of threats you may have to deal with in order to protect yourself. Here are three Cyber security threats you may come across.

1. Ransomware

One of the bigger problems in the last couple of years is definitely Ransomware. As it doesn’t seem to be going anywhere and may even grow as more of a threat, making it something to monitor closely.

But why is ransomware so popular to use?

The easy answer to that is that ransomware is easy money, and by easy money, we are talking about thousands and thousands of dollars when it goes the way the cyber-criminal wants it to go. The bad thing for you is it’s not really hard to use ransomware properly, making it easy for those criminals to get your money.

Like the name applies the ransomware takes over your computer or network and holds it hostage for a ransom. Till the large amounts of money are paid the computer or network stays completely locked to you and you’ll be unable to do anything with it.

Should you really be that concerned with ransomware?

What has made ransomware more popular is the increasing usage of Internet of Things devices or cryptocurrency. That means there are more devices that can be taken over, the transactions can’t be traced, and cryptocurrency can be used anonymously.

2. Phishing Attacks

Since the beginning of the internet Phishing attacks have also been a big migraine for cybersecurity. It is used to steal someone’s password, username, or credit card information easily. In 2017 it was seen that there was an increase in phishing attacks on domestic and business users, and it didn’t show any signs of slowing down.

Phishing all starts with you answering an email that seems to come from a trusted source. For example, a website you regularly use or even your own bank provider. So once you trustingly give them all the information they ask for it’s sent right to the malicious source. And from that point, they can purchase things using the information you gave them.

No one who uses the internet is really safe from phishing and will see an attempt at least once, most commonly in the form of spam emails. So being cautious and vigilant is the best way to prevent this kind of attack.

3. Computer Viruses and Worms

Computer viruses and worms have been around for so long and with how simple viruses and worms seem they are often underestimated on how destructive they can truly be. They are becoming more and more of an issue, often found in certain files like documents and spreadsheets waiting to be activated.

Once the file that holds the virus is open the machine will become infected. Worms will move throughout your computer and infect all your files by replicating. Viruses and worms can be the basic building blocks of a more serious threat making them a big problem.

One of the reasons viruses and worms have become more dangerous is the way and reasons we use our computers. Identity theft and financial fraud often happen because they seek to steal financial and personal information. You should keep using updated antivirus solutions to continue to protect yourself.

The Overall Outlook for Cybersecurity Threats

Cyber-attacks aren’t going to slow down anytime and they may even increase in frequency. Also with more people than ever using the internet cybercriminals have a large amount of possible victims to choose from. So now they will take any chance to make easy money at your expense.

These threats are not really changing, viruses, ransomware, and phishing have always been common attacks on cyber security. The reason for the increasing growth in attacks is the fact that users of the internet are becoming more careless in their protection.

So don’t let yourself fall victim to this carelessness. You should stay alert, vigilant, knowledgeable of threats, and up-to-date on good antivirus software. And if that all seems overwhelming that’s what we here at Elevated Technologies are here for.