Cloud Communications

Don't Let Valentine's Day Cyber Threats Leave You Broken-Hearted

By Erin Harrison Executive Editor, Cloud Computing

While Valentine’s Day has come and gone this year, online threats popped up on this annual holiday that celebrates love – as is common on many holidays, including Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas. But holidays are not the only time online scams are creeping around the Internet – they lurk year-round.

One of the most common threats comes in the form of good old-fashioned spam, which aims to have you download malware onto user systems, or attempts to steal information and money, according to Jovi Umawing, a communications and research analyst with GFI Software.

“Such campaigns range from fake e-cards; mails allegedly containing links to videos, songs, poetry and pictures; purported promotions for flowers, romantic dinners, jewelry, and other gift-related theme; scammers even went with fake discount codes to make the offer a bit more irresistible,” Umawing wrote in this blog post.

While the promise of digital dating opens up a chasm for meeting new potential mates for people all ages, the real-world perils of hooking up with strangers and even non-existent people are ever-present on the Internet.

“Threats, such as catfishing, profile spoofing and fraud are huge points of concern within this industry, too,” Umawing explained.

ThreatMatrix published a graphical representation of stats of criminal activities going on in online dating that you may want to check out here.

In this era of social sharing, it’s easy for Facebook (News - Alert) and Twitter users to reveal too much, which leaves them vulnerable to cybercriminals trolling the Internet. “A post, tweet and reblog can also the state of the owner’s account: compromised, possibly fake, actively spamming,” according to Umawing.

GFI Software offers the following security tips to help you stay safe:

• Trust, but verify. It never hurts to thank and ask this friend of two years you hardly spoke to if they indeed sent the e-mail or not. One doesn’t have to click on links to find out because by then, it might already be too late. This applies to things shared on social networking sites, too.
• TMI. a.k.a., “too much information.” Keep it in mind when talking with someone you just met online (may it be on a dating or social networking site or forum) and want to get to know better.

GFI Software also offers its VIPRE line of antivirus solutions, which are available as an on-premise, cloud-managed or stand-alone solution. Each version includes free tech support by phone, e-mail or online chat.

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