1 out of 14 e-mails sent in South Africa is now a scam
SOCIAL media users are easy targets of cyber crimes, a CSIR researcher in data science, Thulani Mashiane, has said.
Mashiane said social media users tended to share their personal information on their profiles, which made it easy for criminals to hack into their accounts.
Mashiane said: “Your social media profiles on platforms such as Facebook are giving criminals access to your personal information freely. Many have full names and surnames, addresses and contact details on profiles, and then wonder how they got hacked or stalked.”
Mashiane said the trend of checking-in into places to show people your “lavish” life was exactly what had got many people into trouble.
“The minute I see you have checked in at another city I can easily go to your house because I know you are not there.”
Last year, the FBI ranked South Africa sixth and seventh on the cybercrime predator list.
The Chartered Secretaries Southern Africa Premier Corporate Governance conference in Joburg last year noted that cybercrime was becoming a major problem in SA.
It was pointed out that 79% of all online phishing victims lost their money, and that the country was the 23rd highest attacked country in terms of hacking and cybercrime.
For instance, one out of 14 e-mails sent in South Africa was a scam.
The Special Investigating Unit also noted that South Africa was the world’s third highest country to be hit by cyberattacks, losing in excess of R2.2 billion to internet fraud and phishing attacks annually.
Mashiane said the only way for social media users to protect themselves from hackers was not to over-share their personal information and limit who viewed their profiles.
Everyone loves a good game and many have one or more on their phones. The problem arises when you don’t read the permissions you need to accept or deny before downloading a game, said Mashiane.
“Permissions on most games requires a permission to access your pictures, location, contact list and other things. But have you wondered why a game wants to know where you are to access your contact list?
“This is how people get into your phone – when you just accept without reading. It’s 2am when you’re sleeping that hackers are busy on your phone, stealing your personal details, and you wonder what happened to your data in the morning.
“Always read the permission list of anything you download,” she said.
She advised parents and guardians to keep watch on the type of games their children played online.
“There are suicide games such as Blue Whale, which targets vulnerable children and attracts them to play a suicide game. In this game a puppeteer gives the player instructions on what to do.
“The first challenge is nothing hectic, but as you continue with the challenges the final challenge is to kill yourself. About 130 cases linking to this game have been found in Europe and trends from overseas end up in our country, hence everyone needs to be aware of this.”
Mashiane added that parents also needed to keep an eye on their 2-year-olds who already knew their ways around their mobile phones.
“Many parents sometimes just open YouTube, give it to their children and probably go about their house chores.
“But as much as you left playing your child a certain video, YouTube suggests different other things which the child can be attracted to, but which might not be appropriate for the child,” she said.
CSIR senior cyber security specialist Muyowa Mutemwa advised people to avoid using free and public wi-fi for banking transactions or to update and install applications.
Mutemwa said the public security was weak and it was easy for criminals to hack into an account.
He said while you were using free wi-fi, someone might intentionally manipulate the operating system.
He also advised that “people should not access their social media accounts everywhere”, as it was easy for hackers to intercept the traffic, encrypt it and get hold of the victim’s password.
“Before updating anything using free wi-fi, first check with your service provider and ensure that the update that’s been released is authentic,” he said.