A recent study involving more than 200,000 Internet-using households in America showed that more than 30 percent of those households were infected and at risk of online identity theft, cybercrime and other threats.
The study also showed that spyware accounted for 47 percent of the attacks, while trojans and other threats specific to identity theft made up 21 percent. Twenty-six percent of the infected households were made accessories to cybercrime by botnet or other attacks that turn control of the home computer over to criminals. Only 6 percent of the attacks were identified as traditional computer viruses.
In a companion survey to evaluate how well the average user understands the need for identity protection, results showed that the average computer user has serious misconceptions about identity theft and online safety.
Consumers must remember that their home computers are a popular target for thieves. Why? Because you’ve got just the information they need stored on it – credit card numbers, bank account information, Social Security numbers, etc. By stealing that information, they can commit any number of crimes.
But why home computers? Because home computers are typically not very secure and are easy to break into. No matter how a PC is connected to the Internet in your home, the attack of a thief is often successful because so many homeowners don’t pay attention to cyber security.
How do these thieves break into your computer? They send you e-mail with a virus, look for weaknesses in one of your computer’s programs and install programs to give themselves access to your computer.
What can you do? Install and use anti-virus programs. Keep your system patched with the latest bug-fixing updates. Be cautious when reading e-mails with attachments, particularly if it’s unsolicited. Install and use a firewall. Make backups of important files and folders. Use strong passwords, and change them often. Be careful when downloading and installing programs. Use a file encryption program and access controls.
The bottom line is this, pay attention to the safety features on your computer now – or pay the price later.
Tags: computer safety, Identity Theft, identity theft survey, LifeLock
