As the reach and sophistication of technology rises to pants-shitting hights, so too do the hackers and scammers looking to swindle you out of your cash money or private data.
The good folks at cybersecurity company Proofpoint have been kind enough to share their outlook for 2017 and what you, the denizen of a vast and scary internet, should be lookin’ out for.
THEY’LL PROBS TARGET SNAPCHAT
Snapchat is a very valuable target for hackers, mainly due to its popularity and colossal user-base. So it makes sense for them to want a piece of that pie.
“We predict that in 2017, either a number of
major campaigns will be launched with great success, or a major security
vulnerability in the platform itself will be revealed, with proof-of-concept
(POC) code made available,” says the report.
It’s uncertain in what capacity these internet wankers will try and fool you, but if you think something seems suss, it probably is. Snap safe, fam.
THEY’RE GONNA TRY AND FOOL YA
For a long time, sneaky assholes distributed exploit kits that detailed certain vulnerabilities in software or networks that allowed them to carry out attacks. As companies have become better at securing their shit, the effectiveness of these kits has declined.
The report predicts that they will be replaced by what’s been dubbed ‘human kits’, with methods of fooling people or groups of people into giving up their precious details or dollarydoos. These will likely take the form of personalised phishing emails and clickbait links that will infect your computer with the worst kind of cyber herpes.
Remember, no matter how much information they have about you, the Nigerian prince doesn’t have any money for you.
MIND THE FAKE APPS
Remember when everyone was shitting their pants over Pokemon GO? It’s hard to forget the hoards of people running across freeways to catch a rare Snorlax.
During the madness, a heap of poor suckers got fooled into downloading an app that was almost identical to the original, or a 3rd party app that was crammed full of malicious code. Once this kind of malware is in ya phone, it serves up your data to internet thugs on a silver platter or fools you into making bung purchases.
“These apps may be designed to infect mobile
devices, or to simply make money by using a legitimate company’s brand to trick
users into fraudulent credit card purchases or to click on fraudulent ads.”
devices, or to simply make money by using a legitimate company’s brand to trick
users into fraudulent credit card purchases or to click on fraudulent ads.”
The Proofpoint report predicts these kinds of attacks will become more widespread, so always double check that the app you’re downloading is the official version, lest your bank account becomes completely rinsed by cyber jerks.
Pictured: Typical internet scam artist.
Source: Proofpoint.
Photo: Carl Court / Getty.
