Digital Dangers: Real-Life Lessons in Cybersecurity

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The technology is evolving every day and we come across new innovation which helps to make our day to day life easy and better. If we compare today's life style with life style of people living 10-15 year back then we see technology changed a lot of things around us. The technology is not just has advantages it also has many disadvantages. The cyber security is a topic which always underestimated by all of us till the time we does not get effected by it. The meaning of cyber security is keeping ourself secure and alert for fraud and scammed going online. Today's the internet has become the basic need of every one and internet has been entered in every place. You just look around you the internet has reach to most of the stuff around us like smart phone, smart TV, smart refrigerators, smart speakers you just name everything has has internet connectivity. On one side it looks fascinating but on other side it also give chance to hackers to get into our privacy. Any electronic which is connected to the internet is the door for hackers and even may give access to the video camera, microphone or speakers. The hackers can take information from such devices and use it against us or use it for scamming us.

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Now days we must be updated and be alert so that we should not get intraped by hacking. When I say updated that means updating ourselves as well as the electronic devices we used. I have seen many peoples using the old mobile phone and outdated OS devices which are more prone to the security breach or I would say are more favorable for hackers. The security patches OS developers provided on time to time are includes the important security updates which has the code keeping in mind the loose ends found in old OS. Now days the free wifi internet is available on public stations like shopping mall, railway stations, airports etc. Once we connect to such networks means we become the part of such networks where a number of other unknown users are connected, and any person has the knowledge of hacking may also be the part of such networks which can steal the information from your devices. So we should alway be cautious when we uses such free services. Such please are favorite places gor hackers and they also found may soft targets here. Do not respond to suspicious links recieved from known or unknown person. Those links may contain viruses which infected your device immediately even before you understand the situation. I have seen many such cases around me and people also lost money in such incidents.

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Let me shared one incident happened with me where hackers stole the identity of one of my x colleagues. It's was evening time and we were enjoying the evening tea. I recieved one notification on Facebook which was the friend request. I checked the details like name and the profile picture and does not found anything worng in it. Those are first hand check we normally do and at that time I do not get anything wrong in this account. What after few minutes the things start getting suspicious. I accepted the request and after few minutes recieved the first Hi message form the new account. It was also looks normal to me. The person on other side which I was assuming is my colleagues stated the conversation further like how's the family and how's the like going on, how's the job etc etc. I also replied according and also asked similar questions form him. I was happy to meet my old colleague on social media, even I have his mobile number also. Suddenly the things start suspicious when the person on other side ask me for one favor. I ask ok then he start telling that he need my help as he stucked somewhere and need financial help form me. This immediately make me think over the situation as the person has just send me the friend request and within in minutes her asked for financial help. I know my x colleagues was a finance guy and also belongs to a good family and during his job he was earning very well. I message him to call me because I want to talk to her. I sent me a mobile number but I asked him to call me. He asked on which number I told him that I have same old phone number so her may call on same. Here he stucked and start making excuses, I immediately understand the situation and took the screen shot of our conversation. I called my x colleagues and explain what just happened to me and shared the screen shoots also. He total denied that he is not send any friends request and not message me. My x colleagues immediately shared the incident with all his known and asked not to accept such friend requests. Afterwards he come to know that the similar incident qas happened to some other friend of him also, using the same fake account.

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What I understand for the incident was that some hackers stolen the picture of my colleagues from some where and using them they created a new account with his name. They started sending the friend request to all his friends on social media and asked for help from those who accepted the friend request. This was the case of identity theft. This is also a common scam operated by hackers. As per my knowledge no one transfer anything thing to scammer which was a relief for my colleagues also.
This is very simple technique the hacker used which involves the stoling the picture of someone and fooling their friend but as the technology growing the hackers also getting advanced and using the advanced tools and techniques to make other fool and stole their money. So it's very important and essential part of our today's life that we must also update ourself and start safe from such incidents.

Please do share your views in comment section.


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Generally, scammers copy the photos of people who have a large number of contacts in their networks, or of people who work in the crypto world and who share or talk a lot about these things, they are generally the targets of these scams. That is why it is advisable to be very cautious with the activities that are carried out online, this means always being alert, verifying that you are really conversing with those who are your friends and above all not installing software of dubious origin or clicking on suspicious links.

As a hacker and pen testing expert I am aware of this, and in my seminars I always give examples and talk about this.

I am pleased to know that you were not scammed by that scammer, and I hope you have notified all your contacts about this case, since it is necessary to alert everyone so that they do not fall into that trap.

A good practice is to add a special detail to your profile photos that only you and your acquaintances know, and talk about it with your friends. This way, if one day they hack your account or try to scam you, you only ask about that detail and if they don't answer, you already know that that person is not your friend or acquaintance. It is a way to protect yourself, having a password or a special security word with your friends, that helps a lot when it comes to these things.

I hope these recommendations from a cybersecurity expert are useful to you =)

Fortunately the information you provided is very helpful. I will keep in mind your advice also.
Thanks for stopping by and sharing you expertise.

Yes, the idea is that the more people are alert about these things, the more prepared we will be to face these issues. For me it is an obligation to alert users about these things, education and information, the most important thing.

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AI face-swapping technology like deepfake is negatively affecting society and there are very less tools to verify the authenticity of the same.

Thanks a lot for the support.