Do you consider yourself a digital savvy? Are you so deeply immersed in online life that you can tell what’s real and what’s not? Recently, Kaspersky Lab decided to test the cyber-literacy levels of their users. What they unfortunately discovered was that the number of those who are truly “literate” internet users and have good security habits is surprisingly small.
The ability to distinguish a genuine website from a fake one or a legitimate email from a spam message, however, are not the only criteria that define cyber-literacy. A cyber-literate user has a variety of good habits. For example, downloading files from unknown websites is a bad habit, while checking the system for vulnerabilities and regularly updating it to deal with viruses are good habits.
Backing up your data is a good habit, while revealing too much information on social networks is a bad habit. Using weak passwords and keeping them on a piece of paper is a bad habit, while installing new applications or software without a second thought, not even a glance at the license agreements or their access rights is an even worse habit. Cyber -education is the foundation of information security, which if followed, can protect your data, your privacy, your money, or even your device.
In the real world, we all, to varying degrees, follow the laws of self-preservation. As we grow older, this instinct of self-preservation and carelessness observed in children fades and is replaced by the necessary caution. However, when you are online, this instinct stops working for some reason and many people become careless like children, being sure that nothing can go wrong. In recent research by Kaspersky Lab, it was shown that there are too many people who fall into the trap.
It is like crossing a road at a red light, without looking both ways. In fact, threats are becoming more and more sophisticated, so the chances of you being lucky on the Internet are constantly decreasing. Cybercriminals know this and are increasingly relying on human nature: they put odds on people not doing something or not noticing something suspicious, ultimately delivering a new virus to their machines.
Finally, as it goes without saying, one should use reliable software to protect all of your devices. antivirus should be updated regularly and scan your files frequently. In case it reacts to one of your programs, just trust it and don’t disable it just because it’s annoying. Don’t make cybercriminals’ lives easier!
