Ransomware is a big concern for many people these days, and it affects everyone from large corporations to random individuals. And while it’s important to know how to protect yourself and what you need to do to keep your data safe, it seems like a surprisingly large number of people insist on continuing to poke the bear.
Ransomware often doesn’t target random people. Instead, it's targeted at specific individuals, or at least groups of individuals, that have displayed certain attractive characteristics. If you’re feeling bored and feel like you could use some extra negativity in your life, there are some things you could do to increase the chances of getting targeted by ransomware.
*Disclaimer: Avoid doing these things at all costs!
1. Keep Proprietary Data on Your Computer
By far one of the easiest ways to make yourself an attractive target is to keep proprietary data with some value attached to it on your personal computer. This is actually becoming increasingly common in the last couple of years due to the massive shift towards working from home, and it’s been a major hassle for many companies.
That’s why many employers require people working remotely to take extra steps like encrypting their hard drives and connecting through a VPN. But if your data is important enough, that will hardly do anything to stop anyone who wants to attack you.
2. Link Your Identity to Your Digital Profiles All the Time
If you're in an important position, there’s a good reason why many employers will often advise you against publicly proclaiming where you work and what you do. It makes you much more interesting to potential attackers, and this could draw in a whole bunch of issues other than ransomware.
Social engineering attacks will become more common, and you may even find yourself engaged in private conversations with people who don’t have your best intentions in mind—but more on that below.
Of course, you probably still want to maintain some sort of online presence that links you to your job. Just don’t go into too many details. List a general name for your position and stop there. Don’t go into details like what projects you’re working on, which departments you’re involved in, and so on.
The people who would find those details relevant will never try to extract them from your LinkedIn profile in the first place; that’s what interviews are for.
3. Reuse Passwords
Using a password manager has become a common practice for many, but it seems like there are a lot of people who unfortunately still don’t understand the risks.
There are some valid concerns with using password managers in general—like losing access to your master file, having it fall into the wrong hands, or the issue with hosted services where your passwords are hosted by a third party. But all of those are minor compared to the issues that you’re bringing about by reusing passwords as an alternative.
Sure, it’s convenient. But as soon as one of your accounts is compromised, you’re going to run into a lot of trouble on many fronts. And this happens more often than you might think; companies get attacked regularly, and credentials are leaked as a result.
Attackers commonly seek access to those leaks because they can then attempt to reuse the same password on a bunch of other websites and services.
If criminals manage to get to your main email, then you’ve lost everything. Because that can open the doors to pretty much every account with an “I forgot my password” option.
4. Post on Shady Websites
There are lots of places on the internet that people would tell you to avoid. And just like their real-life counterparts, they tend to attract the curiosity of the less careful ones among us.
Visiting those sites exposes you to various risks that go beyond simply saying the wrong thing, though. You don’t know what kind of tracking might be happening in the background, and the site might be actively collecting information about you that goes beyond what happens at an ordinary website.
This could lead to a potential attack sooner or later, especially if those with access to this information determine that you’re a more attractive target than you seemed at first.
In fact, some sites revolving around piracy and similar topics exist solely as honeypots to attract people who would then get infected with malware, or worse. Use your common sense and remember the old saying: “if it’s too good to be true, it probably is”.
5. Talk to the Wrong People
As an extension to the above, watch out for the kinds of contacts you make online. People might not be who they claim, and you should always keep an eye open for potential shady intentions. When you combine this with some of the above points, things can get quite scary.
Some people might target you because they’ve gathered information about you from other sources, and they can make the whole interaction seem very natural and legitimate.
These are some of the attacks you should be most careful about, because social engineering experts can go to some scary lengths to extract the information that they need from you if they believe that you have something important. And this can often have some lasting repercussions on your life as well.
Ransomware is often just the first step here. Things can get much worse after that, and they often do.
Being Careful Pays More Than Ever Before
It’s more important than ever before to stay on your toes and watch out for any shady signs when you’re browsing the internet. You’ll often run into various interesting interactions, some of which might not raise any red flags. But always keep in mind what’s at stake, and what you risk falling into the wrong hands by being careless.
What’s more, this is something you need to stay alert about all the time. It’s not something you can just learn once and call it a day; the field of cybersecurity is ever-evolving.