Be alert even in summer: the 5 most common cyber attacks that can ruin your holidays

4 Jul. (Portaltic/EP) –

Cybercriminals never rest, and even less so in the summer, the time of year when the number of malicious attacks they carry out increases, taking advantage of the fact that their potential victims are more interested in resting and having a good time than in maintaining their protected accounts.

Cyberattacks can put personal data, passwords and bank accounts at risk, which is why it is a good idea to frequently review the authentication methods that protect accounts and applications, as they are becoming increasingly sophisticated.

Although techniques have been refined over time and it is increasingly difficult to control certain malicious actions, cybercriminals continue to employ others that are as simple as they are effective.

Hence the ‘phishing’ It remains one of the star techniques, consisting of deceiving a user by pretending to be a person – family member, friend, acquaintance -, a company or service – for example, the bank – that inspire confidence in the potential victim.

To trick the attacker, they create a fake email that sounds convincing and requires immediate action. In addition, a URL is inserted that redirects to a fake page created by the attacker himself to obtain the access data to the service and take control of the account.

While it is true that an antivirus or a ‘firewall’ can neutralize this type of attack, the reason why they proliferate in summer is that during these months users tend to use other devices (smartphones, tablets), because they are more convenient to carry in a suitcase. In these months, however, it is not common to have a program of these characteristics, which leaves the doors open to cybercriminals to obtain the information they need.

During these months, attacks also increase. ‘vishing’, a format that consists of receiving a phone call in which cybercriminals impersonate a company to obtain additional information.

These calls are also allegedly motivated by something urgentFor example, calls may be made to inform you that a credit card has been blocked or that a package is pending collection.

Taking advantage of the fact that victims may become nervous about these types of problems, attackers collect information that they provide without realizing that it can compromise their security. For example, their full names, their phone numbers or their IDs.

Related to ‘vishing’, cybersecurity experts have recently discovered that cybercriminals take advantage of the situation to record the user’s voice when they pick up the phone and then use it for specific actions without their consent.

Thus, they recommend answering with a “hello” or directly asking “who is it?”, since saying “yes” when answering the call can be used to formalize, for example, the contracting of any service by telephone.

A related scam is one that displays a message right after that “yes” indicating that the purchase has been registered and then automatically hangs up. In this sense, many users call back to that phone number to unsubscribe from what they have just purchased.

That can also endanger your privacy, Therefore, the ideal thing to do is to call the bank, company or operator that supposedly just made the call to cancel the service. This way, it can also be confirmed that it is a telephone fraud.

SMISHING, A CLASSIC

‘Smishing’ is another of the most common forms of cybercrime and it does not stop in the summer either, a social engineering technique that works the same as ‘phishing’ but via SMS. Through this system, malicious actors send a URL indicating to victims that a fraudulent charge has been made to their bank account and that they must click on it to solve it.

In recent times, ‘smishing’ has become very popular, in which cybercriminals pretend to be people in trouble, with messages such as “Mom, my phone is broken, this is my new number.” If you write to them, you will receive a request for money and data that, once provided, these people use them to commit other frauds.

It has also become common to ‘SIM swapping’ or SIM card duplicates when cybercriminals pose as a victim to request a copy of their card after having stolen someone else’s identity. To obtain this second copy, it is sometimes enough to call the telephone company and give their ID and full name.

Finally, it remains to be seen mentioning ‘ransomware’which remains the most common cyberattack through which the cybercriminal gains access to victims’ computers by encrypting the content and demanding a ransom to restore it. Therefore, in order to avoid falling into this trap, it is advisable to turn off the home router before leaving for vacation, as well as disconnect all IoT devices.