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From July 2020 to August 2020, Microsoft caught 8 million incidents of malware threats. If the statistics are so high in a month, imagine how huge they can be if we count all the cyberthreat incidents going on for a whole year.
Now, we all cannot be experts in detecting cyberthreats, but if students fall victim to these traps, that will ruin their careers forever.
Since so many students are taking online classes nowadays, it’s better if they become familiar with the possible cyberthreats that can damage their computers, and if worse, their lives.
Today, we will talk about the 7 most possible cyber threats that students should know.
7 Major Cyber Threats Online Students Should Know About
We know what you are thinking about. Even if you download a movie or a game from the pirate bay without antivirus protection, it can spread viruses to your PC. But you can avoid that, whereas you can’t avoid taking online classes, right?
So, let’s familiarize yourself with these major cyber threats:
1: Phishing
Phishing attacks are pretty common, but people still can’t detect them. Here, you will get mail with a catchy offer that will compel you to open the mail and share your personal information there.
Once you open the mail, the hackers will steal your sensitive details from your PC and threaten you to expose them all over social media.
Phishing texts and emails can pop up on your PC anytime, and since students have a curious mind, they may open it without knowing.
Many corporate networks have also fallen victim to these emails and have lost ample customer data, which has led them to bankruptcy.
2: Scams
Children may fall for attractive stuff available for free online such as free access to an online game or a game hack that will increase their position in the leaderboard. Hackers often target young people as scam victims; they don’t think twice before doing something risky.
If the hackers can lure these children by sharing their parents’ credit card information, it’s all they will need. If the offer sounds too good to be true, it’s not true. So, don’t fall for these scams, and save yourself at all costs.
3: Ransomware
Ransomware is a cyber threat where the hacker holds users’ sensitive information to exchange huge amounts of money. The potential cost of ransomware threats has reached a peak of $7.5 billion in the U.S. in 2019.
This cyber threat can cause severe damage to your online information and can also cause you financial loss. Not only the students, even the school or the university’s server, can also be hacked with this cyber threat.
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4: DoS
A denial of service (DoS) is a type of cyber threat that floods a network or a PC so that it does not respond to any instruction. Cyber attackers use a flood attack to disrupt the PC’s functionality, and your entire PC will freeze as a result.
A botnet is a type of DoS in which one hacker can infect millions of computers with ransomware and make their PCs go crazy.
When these threats infect your system, it is called zombie systems, and hackers target PCs in different geographic locations so that the source of the attack becomes hard to trace.
5: IoT Threats
IoT (Internet of Things) devices such as smart home accessories, smartphones, laptops, and tablets often lack enough security. When these devices are not updated regularly, it becomes easy for hackers to infect them with IoT threats.
If the hacker is skilled, he can infect all the computers in a classroom with the same virus at the same time. It possesses the main risk of data breaching and obstructs the network connectivity making the device even more vulnerable for users.
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6: Password Theft
If you use easy passwords to secure your computer or your social media platforms, hackers can figure them out easily. Once they target your PC, they can use social engineering, a kind of password attack that hackers use to steal the password.
It is a strategy that cyber attackers use, which heavily depends upon human interaction, and when people forget the security protocol, the hacker plays his cards. Outright guessing and accessing a password database is another trick to hack passwords.
7: SQL Injection
A Structured Query Language (SQL) injection is a kind of cyber attack when the hacker puts malicious codes into the server. Once the server is infected, it discloses sensitive information of users. SQL injection attacks are not targeted at an individual but rather a huge group.
It poses a severe threat because it can steal money from the university fund once it hacks a university server. It can even steal students’ money from their personal bank accounts.
To Conclude…
As you can see, we have talked about the most common cyber threats lurking on the web at the moment. If you are forced to join online classes in this pandemic era, you can learn about these threats and protect your computer accordingly.
However, if you need more details on these cyber threats, reach us in the comment section below. We will come back with a reply shortly.
