According to a study, as of October 2023, there are 5.30 billion internet users and 4.95 billion social media users in the world. All these people are at the same risk; phishing attacks.
The advantage of cyber attackers in organizing phishing attacks is that they can organize them without any cyber security weaknesses. Basically, they try to get some information by deceiving people or trying to get people to take some actions. According to another study, 85% of companies are exposed to phishing campaigns.
Although the effects of successful cyber attacks are different for individuals and companies, they always have serious consequences. Although the measures to be taken against this are various, the measures taken by the end user are the most effective. It is very difficult for a cyber attacker to deceive a conscious internet user. In this article, we will focus on the precautions to be taken to stay away from harmful sites.
Use Caution with Clickbait Headlines: How to recognize misleading links and ads
One way cyber attackers deceive internet users is by luring them to fake sites, and they usually do this through clickbait. They leave a link for you to click on a content that will interest you, or they publish a discount ad to attract you to follow it. After all, what the cyber attacker wants is for you to access a site, and there are many ways to do this.
Set Parental Controls for Younger Users: Block unsafe sites and limit browsing activity
There is a feature built into browsers; “Block harmful sites”. You must definitely enable this option. Enabling this feature will ensure that the browser will protect you and not open the relevant link when you try to access a harmful link, even by accident. Additionally, your children may not yet have cybersecurity awareness, so it is easier for them to be deceived by cyber attackers. For this reason, activate the "Parental Control" feature in browsers in the sessions your children use. Thus, your children will be under strict protection with stricter internet traffic control.
Beware of Phishing Scams: Recognize techniques scammers use to steal personal information
Another method that cyber attackers use to deceive users is e-mails. You should be careful when reading e-mails you receive from a platform you are a member of, and carefully examine the sender field of the e-mail. Large e-mail servers include artificial intelligence technology in their processes and direct malicious e-mails to "Spam" boxes, but full success has not been achieved in this regard yet.
Consider Using Safe Search Filters: How search engines can filter explicit and offensive results
Cyber attackers also carry out activities to ensure that the websites they create with malicious content rank high in search engines. Thus, anyone searching on any subject may be directed to a malicious site from the search engine. Enable the “safe search” option on your service provider so that search engines filter sites that they suspect contain malicious content.
Watch Out for Malicious Files and Attachments: Don't open files from unknown senders
One of the ways cyber attackers influence users is to enable them to open specially prepared malicious files. This file may be a PDF file attached to an e-mail, or it may be a file on a site that allows you to download free software. For this reason, be suspicious of every file you download from the internet and do not download files from sources you do not trust.
Use Strong, Unique Passwords for Each Account: Tips for creating secure credentials
A topic we have covered in another previous article is the use of secure passwords. Simple passwords can be easily discovered by cyber attackers. For this reason, create different, strong and unpredictable passwords on each platform. Also enable the 2FA feature on supporting platforms.
Stay Away from Pirating Content: Why downloading copyrighted materials is risky
Torrent traffic constitutes a significant portion of internet traffic. Peer-to-peer file sharing is possible with torrent file snippets. This technology, which was created to provide convenience, has become a sharing center for copyrighted content because it cannot be subjected to adequate control processes. However, it should not be forgotten that; No one will share a copyrighted file with you "just as a favor." Research has shown that files shared via torrent technology contain significant amounts of malicious code. For this reason, do not download files from sources you do not know.
Think Before Sharing Personal Details Online: Limit what you reveal about yourself publicly
Another golden rule of safe internet use is to choose the data you share carefully. Many posts, even if they are harmless and for social purposes, can be used for malicious purposes. Every information you share is now "Open Source" and attackers have OSINT software to collect this information. There are even specialized areas of expertise such as "OSINT Expert" among cyber attackers.
For the simplest example, you can share a picture with your mother's brother and tag your uncle. This seems quite innocent, right? However, your uncle's surname is your mother's surname before she got married and is used as a "secret question" in many banking applications.
Share this and similar information selectively, do not share any unnecessary information.
Check the URL for Suspicious Sites: Watch for misspellings of known brands or organizations
When you somehow reach the site you want to reach, you should definitely check the site address written in the address line. Cyber attackers have software that can create “copy websites” in seconds. Moreover, they define a site name close to the target site so that these sites are considered real. For example, they define the copy of facebook.com as facelook.com. Thus, they make you think it is real at a glance. For this reason, carefully check the address line of the sites you visit.
Remain Skeptical of "Too Good to Be True" Offers: Question promotions that seem improbable
Cyber attackers offer really attractive content to get you to click on a link. This contradiction is also something you should be suspicious about. For example, it is normal for a product to have a discount, but it is not normal for it to be 80% off its real price. Beware of “too attractive” offers like this.
How to check that a link is not harmful?
Any content link you are presented with looks real and you want to click on it. However, you want to check, but how?
Right click on the link and select "copy link address". Thus, you copied the link you will access. Now go to https://www.virustotal.com/ in a different tab and paste the link you copied into the “URL” field and then press the “Enter” key on the keyboard. You will see the scan results of more than 90 security software.
With this method, you can get an idea whether a link is harmful or not without clicking on it.
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