Sharing personal data exposes users to cyber crime

One out of 14 emails sent in South Africa is a scam to defraud you, expert warns

THESE days, when almost everyone owns a smartphone and has access to social media, social media users were becoming increasingly easy targets for cyber crimes.

CSIR researcher in data science Thulani Mashiane said social media users tended to share their personal information on their social media profiles, which made it easy for criminals to hack into their accounts.

Mashiane was speaking at a media briefing on cyber crime and social media threats.

“Social media profiles such as Facebook give criminals access to your personal information freely.

“Many profiles require full names and surnames, addresses and contact details, and then people wonder how they got hacked or stalked.”

Mashiane said the trend of checking in to show people one’s “lavish” lifestyle was exactly what got many people into trouble.

“The whole world does not need to know where you are. The minute I see you have checked in in Durban, I can easily go to your house, because I know you are not there.”

Last year, the US Federal Bureau of Investigation ranked South Africa sixth on the cybercrime predator list, with increasing fraud being perpetrated within he country.

And at a Chartered Secretaries Southern Africa Premier Corporate Governance conference in Joburg last year, it was noted that cybercrime was becoming a major problem in South Africa.

It was pointed out at the conference that 79% of all online phishing victims lost their money, and that attacks in this country ranked 23rd highest in hacking and cybercrime.

For instance, one out of 14 emails sent in South Africa was a scam.

The Special Unit also recently noted that South Africa was the world’s third highest country to be hit by cyber attacks, 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 people have one or two or even more on their phones, but the problem arises when one does not read the permissions that one needs to accept or deny before they downloaded a game.

Mashiane said: “Permissions on most games require permission to access your pictures, location, contact list and other things. But have you wondered why a game needs to know where you are or wants to access your contact list?

“That is how people get into your phone, when you just accept, without first reading the permissions.

“It is around 2am when you are 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 are downloading,” she urged.

She further advised parents and guardians to keep watch on the type of games their chil- dren played online. “There are suicide games on social media, such as Blue Whale, which target children and entice them to play a suicide game.

“In this game a puppeteer instructs the player on what to do.

“The first challenge is nothing untoward, but as you continue with the challenges, the final challenge is kill yourself; 130 cases linking to this game have been found in Europe.

“Overseas trends end up in our country, and everyone needs to be aware of this,” Mashiane warned.