In this modern day and age, screens are all around us. Your school now requires you to join an online class or your job needs you to attend a zoom meeting, a TV set is now a staple in living rooms and in restaurants and or cafes. Waiters and hosts at dining places take your order and seat you all on a tablet, and you never go anywhere without your phone. Of course, devices like these make our lives much easier, not to mention the fact that with the invention of the internet, communicating with others is reduced to a click of a few buttons and hitting send. You can videocall or voice call your friends and loved ones, send pictures and voice messages to tell them how you're doing. You can even post videos and photos, and even words publicly. When you do this, you interact with others in social media, which is a part of cyberspace.
Cyberspace is the digital environment in which you and countless other human beings from across the globe can interact. With the rise of the internet, almost everyone can be found online. In fact, anyone with a phone will likely be on some form of social media. It has become a separate world from reality, where people can choose how they want to present themselves as, where they can remain anonymous if they so wish to be. People nowadays absolutely adore social media, and you probably do too.
It's not hard to see why. Social media is a fun, random space where endless pieces of entertainment perfectly tailored to your tastes is fed to you by the algorithm, and a place where you can talk to others, regardless of whether you know them in real life or not. It makes communication no longer rely on distance, entertainment quick and enjoyable, information easy to access, and it provides a place for you to express yourself.
Now that's all well and good. However, social media can also have some negative effects on you too. Other than the dangers of addiction, lack of socializing- and the draining effect it has, another bad thing that can come from interacting with others in the cyberspace is.....cybercrime. As the name suggests, cybercrime is the term for criminal activities carried out by means of a computer and or the internet. So basically, it's bad stuff done inside the cyberspace. This includes hacking, identity theft, phishing, credit card information stealing, and countless other nefarious acts carried out on innocent people.
In August of the year 2013, for example. The Yahoo email system got majorly hacked, sending numerous spear-phishing spam emails to the users. A Yahoo employee was tricked into clicking one of the links in 2014, and their private information got stolen. Doubtless, this happened to many others as well. And phishing (a person with ill intentions posing as something/someone trustworthy) isn't all. Even things that aren't generally considered crimes, like cyberbullying, hate comments, and posting others' private information happens all the time if you don't have proper security and aren't careful with what you post and who you interact with.
And so, "How do I stop this from happening to myself?" you ask. Well I have some good news for you: taking some safety measures against cybercrime and cyberattacks in general can be quite simple. First of all, DON'T trust anything and anyone with your personal information unless you know them in real life or if you know it is a trustworthy source. Don't go posting everything about yourself in social media, and make sure a website is secure before filling in your personal, private info. Do not click every link you see and accept every message or DM you receive, and be cautious when interacting with people you do not know personally. Remember, you don't know who these people are. Highly refrain from sending them pictures of yourself, talking about your private life, or even sharing sensitive information (how rich you are, your age, where you live, etc). If you are a minor, make sure your parents know what you're watching and who you're talking to. Getting a text or call from an unknown number? Ignore and block them. Getting repeated messages from a suspicious-looking source or site? Erase it and block them.
In short, cybercrime is a very real and very dangerous modern threat that can happen to you at any time if you're in a cyberspace. It could be everything from making an account and pretending to be you to stealing your personal data and selling it to third parties. However, you can stop this by being careful online, making sure everything you interact with is safe and secure, and being wary of what you post on the internet. I hope this small blog post you took the time to read can remind you about internet safety, and being aware in general. I love you all! <3
Author's note: Here are the sources I used for reference. www.overtsoftware.com, www.csis.org, the online dictionary, and go.crowdstrike.com.
