People are spending more time than ever online, and cybercrime has been on the rise as well. This basically results in the perfect storm wherein the increase in cybercrime can turn into a positive feedback loop that sustains itself and continues to grow.
With all of that having been said and now out of the way it is important to note that people really need to start paying more attention to their online security because of the fact that this is the sort of thing that could potentially end up preventing cyber attacks from happening in the first place. Unfortunately, a news outlet by the name of Tom’s Guide conducted a survey that revealed that 20 percent of these people were not taking basic steps to protect themselves such as using a VPN as well as an antivirus.
Using a VPN is essential if you want to stay anonymous online and prevent bad actors from being able to access sensitive data, but only 26% of people said that they used them. Half of these people use paid VPNs with the other half relying on free VPNs. While free VPNs are better than nothing, they are missing crucial features and elements that can take online security to a whole other level.
Antiviruses are generally seeing higher adoption rates, with over 45% of people saying that they use a free antivirus software with Microsoft Defender, which comes preinstalled on Windows operating systems, being one of them. This is still not quite as high as it should be, and a lot more effort needs to be put into educating people about the various ways in which they can go about protecting themselves from the numerous cyber attacks that are occurring on a more or less regular basis. Not having a VPN or an antivirus can greatly increase the likelihood of an attack.
Read next: Covering the Keypad Won’t Protect Your Credit Card Pin from Deep Learning Algorithms
With all of that having been said and now out of the way it is important to note that people really need to start paying more attention to their online security because of the fact that this is the sort of thing that could potentially end up preventing cyber attacks from happening in the first place. Unfortunately, a news outlet by the name of Tom’s Guide conducted a survey that revealed that 20 percent of these people were not taking basic steps to protect themselves such as using a VPN as well as an antivirus.
Using a VPN is essential if you want to stay anonymous online and prevent bad actors from being able to access sensitive data, but only 26% of people said that they used them. Half of these people use paid VPNs with the other half relying on free VPNs. While free VPNs are better than nothing, they are missing crucial features and elements that can take online security to a whole other level.
Antiviruses are generally seeing higher adoption rates, with over 45% of people saying that they use a free antivirus software with Microsoft Defender, which comes preinstalled on Windows operating systems, being one of them. This is still not quite as high as it should be, and a lot more effort needs to be put into educating people about the various ways in which they can go about protecting themselves from the numerous cyber attacks that are occurring on a more or less regular basis. Not having a VPN or an antivirus can greatly increase the likelihood of an attack.
Read next: Covering the Keypad Won’t Protect Your Credit Card Pin from Deep Learning Algorithms