Preventive Measures of Cyber Crime

Part 2 of Protect Your Digital Identity

How many of us have viewed the myriad of Facebook videos displaying cute kittens performing adorable feats of fluff-filled entertainment? At the heart of these silly cat tricks is the insatiable feline curiosity that compels these sometimes friendly creatures to attempt acrobatic feats that defy Newton’s law of gravity. When these frolics fail in the presence of cell phone toting viewers, a new video of tabby theatrics is born to the delight of the fur-friendly Facebook community.
If a twist of fate were to occur where cats became the computer operators and humans were the object of embarrassing silly-human videos, I am afraid that many a cat would shake their heads to see how many humans are trapped by avoidable schemes which are reminiscent of a Tom and Jerry sketch; all due to their cat-like curiosity.

‘Mad Hatter’

By now, the rhetoric must be deafening to be point of boredom, “Never open up an email that was sent by an unknown sender.” This has become near common sense as preventive measures of cyber crime, and we have generally heeded this call. The tricky ones, though, are those emails that we receive from people we know, but are cunningly cryptic in their presentation, claiming “Click here to change your life” followed by an innocent looking Internet link. We open the email since we know the sender, but take pause because of a lack of substance in body of the message. It looks like our friend’s email account may have been hacked and there is a high probability that clicking on this link will lead us down a rabbit hole from whence we shall not return unharmed, but we still discover our index finger fighting not to click on that link because we are curious where it will take us, ignoring the common preventive measures of cyber crime. Rest assured, following that link will infect our computer with a virus that is guaranteed to steal our time and money as we reel in effort to recover from it.

‘Grace under fire’

In hacking lingo, this form of attack is called Social Engineering. Thieves have discovered that it is much easier to attack our good-willed, trusting behavior, than it is to break through secured electronic firewalls. In fact, they are skillfully constructing booby-traps that are so enticing, we want to fall for them, even though we know they are fake. It truly is the worst form of evil to prey upon the good nature of humanity, but that is the reality of our world-wide society.
In conclusion; let me stress the importance of never clicking on links from emails or text messages that are suspicious or out of place. When in doubt, call the sender and verify the validity of that message before you find yourself wishing you could turn back time and follow the preventive measures of cyber crime.