Three Times the Risk for Users of Hacked Online Services | Free Antivirus

Results of a worldwide survey by F-Secure

Anyone who uses compromised online services are three times more likely to be a victim of a cyber attack. Parents are also at a greatly increased risk. These are two results of a global study by the Finnish IT security company F-Secure

Cyber ​​attacks on companies regularly make the headlines - a study by F-Secure shows how severely private Internet users and parents are also affected by attacks from the Internet. Out of every ten respondents, around three people were victims of cybercrimes in the previous twelve months - such as malware infections, unauthorized access to e-mail or social media accounts, or credit card fraud. As part of F-Secure's “The Walking Breached” study, 400 people in twelve countries around the world were asked about their experiences and attitudes towards the Internet, not only in Germany but also in France, Italy, Great Britain, Finland, and the USA.

Those who use online services affected by data leaks are around three times more likely to be victims of cybercrimes. This shows in concrete terms: Not only the company whose systems were broken into suffering from data leaks but also the user whose data is stolen and often sold to cybercriminals on the black market. These people, whose user accounts are accessible to cybercriminals after a data breach, are referred to as "walking breached" by experts and in the F-Secure investigation. According to this, 60 percent of members of this group have been affected by cybercrimes worldwide, compared to only 22 percent from the group of those whose data was not "leaked" through data leaks from online services.

Attacks Harm Users

“We should no longer just talk about companies falling victim to cyberattacks. Our research highlights: These attacks damage a large proportion of the company's customers and particularly affect parents, ”says Laura Kankaala, a security expert at F-Secure. “The theft of customers' personal data often results in identity theft, fraud, or other cyber attacks. Such attacks do not only have an abstract effect on any company balance sheet but also cause concrete damage to millions of Internet users, ”says Kankaala.

 

The research shows that around half of victims of such cyber-crimes suffer from stress and worry. Also, there is a loss of time when restoring the accounts. The financial damage is greater for the "Walking Breached" than for those whose data were not compromised.

User Data Can Be Monetized Very Well

An entire line of business has now emerged around the exploitation of “stolen” user data: E-mail addresses and passwords are often bought and resold before cybercriminals make their capital out of them. More and more often, attackers in ransomware attacks not only encrypt the systems of hacked companies and use this to extort ransom money directly; In addition, they want to "monetize" the captured user data. In a particularly serious case, the blackmailer threatened a psychiatric clinic to publish the therapy records and medical records of the patients if no ransom was paid.

Kankaala emphasizes that far too few Internet users realize in good time how valuable their stored information really is for malicious attackers: “We often only recognize the value of lost data when it is gone. It's not just about a 'social media account' or a few emails. We save pieces of our past and our identity on the Internet: valuable pictures that we have not saved in any other place or an important conversation with loved ones that may be irretrievably lost in the event of a breach. ”Cybercriminals want to exploit this again and again.

Want to prevent cybercriminals from exploiting... try Protegent360's free antivirus.