The world is living a life it’s never lived before – chiefly due to the internet that’s giving us a new wave of anonymity (aka freedom used for both good and evil). PEDESTRIAN.TV has teamed up with Norton by Symantec who are exposing the deep, dark and twisted truth of the online world with its A+ new doco-series, Where Cybercrime Goes To Hide, ’cause it’s about time we get inside the medium we’re using all day, erryday, don’t ya think? Check the show for yourself HERE.
Everything we do now is through the net – work, banking, shopping, emails. Heck, even the way we communicate is now warped by the immediacy and accessibility of the web, and it’s no secret that our all-round life skills, privacy and, y’know, the old-fashioned element of surprise are getting seriously messed up in the process.
We know what our exes had for dinner last night and that a former-BFFL was proposed to by some dude, how he did it, and, of course, that she “SAID YES!” (even though we haven’t spoken to her since we graduated five years ago). On a more serious note, we have also opened the door for morally bankrupt hackers to leak personal photos, emails and more whatnots that we never asked to see.
It’s kinda scary when you really think about it. We all know someone who’s had their bank account scammed, been rigged on eBay, received dirty spam – but aren’t exactly researching or actively trying to prevent illegal online activity in our own lives. Hey, if we’re not on the fame level of Jennifer Lawrence, we’ll be right, right?
Yeah, nah. Humanity might’ve created the internet but we’ll be damned if any of us lot actually understand it, and its lack of limitations. But, thankfully, the world is finally getting it together, by, y’know, talking about, raising awareness and, most importantly, taking action against the very real issue of cyber ignorance.
The douchelord behind 2014’s celeb nude photo-hacking scandal recently pleaded guilty and justifiably faces cell time, SBS2 is exposing the ~dark side~ of the net including cyber-kidnapping, online cults, webcam sex trades and more in a new TV series dubbed Dark Net. Online imposters have been brought to the forefront thanks to MTV‘s Catfishing, and – a new one that’s really quite messed up in confronting us with the unknown – Norton by Symantec‘s Where Cybercrime Goes To Hide doco-series.
We don’t want to give too much away (’cause you can watch it online HERE), but, in short, it goes deep on countries the size of the average suburban household (so, like a teeny bit bigger than overpriced inner-city cesspits), that have their own rules, laws and even currencies, and, are able to bring that world wide web to its knees in only 24 hours.
They are bunkers/caves/seafortresses that offer cybercriminals the privacy to conduct unregulated information exchanges, malware attacks, spam dumps, ransomware breaches, and hosting with 100% anonymity and zero government restrictions. Frankly put, their level of power scares the shit out of us – even more so than the fact that they’re doing it out of repurposed drug labs in Holland.
Here we were thinking that hackers were these lonely, socially-inept nerds hiding out in the basement of their parent’s house, but they’re working in groups, and we all know that strength comes in numbers.
We get that there’s a mentality where we’re not too concerned unless it’s going on in your own backyard, but – hate to break it ya’ guys – the internet pretty much bins any spatial differences with its ability to connect us all through one scarily dominant medium.
We don’t want to dampen your thoughts that tell you the internet is a wonderful, wonderful thing that’s changing the world as we know it for the better. But wouldn’t it be even more amazing if we knew the ins and outs and were able to stop the potential for havoc on the platform?
DON’T WORRY YOU GUYS! WE’VE GOT SOME HELPFUL TIPS FOR Y’ALL!
USE STRONG PASSWORDS: None of this “ABC123” stuff, OK? Be a lil creative. Change your passwords every three months and never recycle your passwords. Y’can also use a password manager to further protect your precious info.
THINK BEFORE YOU CLICK: Don’t just open up whatever. Opening the wrong attachment can introduce malware to your system and ain’t nobody got time for that. Don’t view/open/copy email attachements unless you trust that sender. Even then, you can’t always trust your contacts ’cause they might’ve been bitten by a web bug. If it looks suss, it probably is.
PROTECT YOURSELF BEFORE YOU WRECK YOURSELF: Prevention is always better than a cure. We know that. You know that. The one night stand from the w/e knows that. Use an internet security solution incl. antivirus, firewalls, browser protection and proven protection from online threats.
BE AFRAID, VERY AFRAID: Versions of software that claim to be free/cracked/pirated can expose you to malware. Social engineering and ransomware attacks will try and trick y’all into thinking your computer is infected, and get you to buy useless software or pay money directly to have it removed. Not cute.
SAFETY FIRST: The info you share online, which, these days is errythang, puts you at risk for social engineered attacks. Limit the amount of personal information you share on socials/online, including login information, birth dates and pet names. We know it’s hard, but finding yourself in a dirty online pickle is saaa much harder.
Go forth o’ beautiful internet users.
Photo: HBO.
