Everybody from private citizens, business leaders and politicians are talking about hacks and
cyberattacks, which isn’t surprising given how many multinational corporations and prominent political
parties have suffered high-profile security breaches. If these seemingly impenetrable institutions got
hacked, how can average people and smaller businesses be safe?
Everybody has an online presence, but most people don’t have expertise in IT — people know enough to
be scared that their privacy may get breached, but not enough to keep themselves protected.
Here are three reasons why you may want to thicken your online security with new encryption
technology that will keep all your privacy safe.
Texting and Email Aren’t Invulnerable
The most common forms of communication, SMS text messages and emails, are not immune to hacking.
In fact, they say a sophisticated cybercriminal only needs 15 minutes to break into Gmail.
Once your email has been breached, hackers can then obtain valuable information about you or your
company.
Sensitive business or personal information can be used for blackmail, or by rivals to
undermine your business moving forward. If they access your email, it’s possible they can obtain things
like banking passwords, credit card numbers, and other information which can help them drain your
account.
Having an encrypted smartphone is the only true guarantee that nobody will be able to access your
messages except for the person you’re sending them to — you can read up for more info about
encryption tech, and all the ways it keeps you safe.
Extortion via Ransomware
Hacking inside your email is unfortunately not the only method by which cybercriminals can breach your
security and steal money from your bank account. Cybercriminals sometimes trick ordinary users into
installing a sophisticated virus on their computer, which when installed lets the criminal take control of
your computer. “Ransomware” is the name given to the worst of these viruses.
How does ransomware get into your computer? Usually by what’s known as phishing spam. Once inside,
ransomware encrypts all the information on your computer or network, preventing you from accessing
your own system.
The cybercriminal can threaten to delete your entire hard drive, unless you pay thema ransom.
For small businesses depending on their computers to run smoothly, this can obviously be devastating.
Powerful Encryption Tools Have Never Been Easier
In the way people know how to drive a car but can’t explain how a carburetor works, most people know
how to use their phone and email but don’t have the technical expertise to keep these things
safeguarded. Historically, standard encryption was too complicated for most people to use, and it took
more time to learn than most people were willing to devote.
Now there’s new technology specifically designed to address this gap, so non-tech users can freely chat
and share images while being protected by industry-leading encryption.
Hopefully enough people adopt this protective encryption technology — in a world where people worry
as more and more companies and political institutions keep getting hacked, it’s clearly something that’s
badly needed.