According to research from Kaspersky Lab, forty-five percent of what we do online requires us to disclose personal or financial data. Significant numbers of people are confident about conducting financial transactions online. However, this increasing confidence brings with it several problems.
The results of a survey of regular home PC users shows that despite the increase in backdoor Trojans, keyloggers and Internet scams such as targeted phishing attacks, Internet users have not been put off going online to conduct their banking, shopping and travel bookings. The top online activities listed by home PC users that require the disclosure of personal information were: banking (20 per cent of online activity); shopping (15 per cent); and travel booking (10 per cent).
David Emm, Senior Technology Consultant at Kaspersky Lab, says: "We are now so at ease giving out our personal data online that there is a risk of becoming complacent and falling for a phishing scam. These scams are getting more and more sophisticated and in some cases, harder to spot. Our research shows that 34 per cent of computer-literate home PC users have had their securitycompromised in the last 12 months. And these are people who are clued up about Internet security, which shows how good some of these cyber-criminals are."
Kaspersky Lab has the following advice on protecting yourself from phishing scams:
Do not complete a form in an email message asking for personal information. Only enter such information using a secure website - check that the URL (i.e. the web address) starts with 'https://', rather than just 'http://'. Look for the padlock symbol in the lower right-hand corner of the web browser and double-click on it to check its validity.
Avoid clicking on links in email messages. It's safer to manually type the URL into the web browser.
NEVER divulge passwords or PINs via email, or by any other method, to someone you don't know. If any organisation contacts you, even by phone, don't be afraid to refuse to tell them personal details. After all, you can't verify who's contacting you.
Make sure your anti-virus program blocks phishing attacks.
Make sure you install securitypatches for your web browser and other applications.
