At any moment in our modern lives, our hands can lead us into danger. Most modern tasks are completed by tapping, clicking, typing or swiping with our fingers. But we don’t realise how dangerous our hands can be. We type out passwords, click on links and tap ‘Yes’ to license agreements without even reading them. All the while, we remain oblivious to how easily hackers can get their hands on our data and prey on our lives.
It’s easy to point fingers and blame others. However, if you’ve been hacked, there are a number of things that YOU can do to stop hackers in their tracks, and to prevent it from happening again.
10 signs that a hacker has gotten their hands into your system:
- Your system suddenly runs incredibly slow.
- Fake anti-virus messages and popups constantly appear on your screen.
- Unwanted programs and browser toolbars suddenly appear installed on your system.
- Your Internet searches get redirected to other pages.
- Suspicious friend requests to and from people you don’t know on your social media start to show up.
- Your mouse cursor moves between programs and makes selections by itself.
- Your anti-malware, task manager or registry editor software is suddenly disabled.
- Strange devices suddenly appear on your network list.
- External devices are switched on and running, even though they aren’t in use.
- You notice strange activity on your online credit and bank accounts.
Just to point out:
500 million
Yahoo accounts were compromised in 2016.
50 million
Facebook accounts were affected by the hacks in 2019.
1.5 billion
Whatsapp users were in danger of having their phones targeted by spyware in 2019.
10 things you should do immediately after being hacked:
There are a multitude of services and options at your fingertips, you just need to act quickly.
- Change your passwords, security questions and login details on all your accounts.
- Report any account hacks to the respective website’s security reporting system or for a Sappi device to phishingreport@sappi.com.
- Look for any unusual or suspicious devices connected to your network.
- Disable your system’s Internet connection and disconnect from all other wireless networks such as WiFi and bluetooth.
- Restart in ‘safe mode’ and try to find any suspicious looking software.
- Run an anti-virus and anti-malware scanner.
- If possible, click a ‘restore point’ to return your system to a prior state.
- Notify all your colleagues, friends and contacts of the compromise, so they know to ignore any fake messages or interactions from you.
- De-authorize all apps on Facebook, Twitter, etc.
- Wipe your hard drives of your home PC or mobile device and initiate the backups.
Be hands on:
- Enable multi-factor authentication (MFA) on all your password accounts. This ensure that hackers have to gain access to 2 or more devices before being able to infiltrate your account.
- Keep offline backups of all your sensitive and valuable data, then test those backups regularly. If you opt for cloud storage, ensure you are familiar with their recovery policies, and have researched their credibility.
- When backing up data to the cloud, ensure it is encrypted into a .rar or .zip file and that it requires an access key to be opened.
- Enable transaction and login alerts for all of your accounts, where possible. This way you will be notified with a push notification as soon as any activity occurs on your account.
- Credit cards tend to be safer for online purchases, as they are often backed by fraud insurance policies that make it easier to get back your stolen funds. If possible, using a mobile-based scan payment system is even safer.
- Never log onto any of your accounts while on an untrusted wireless network. Be wary of typing in passwords on public domains, as keylogging can easily lead to a hacker gaining your account details and sensitive data.
- Always check the license agreements of apps and software you install. They might include a clause that agrees to installing unwanted third party software or grant automatic access to your camera or microphone.
- Periodically search online to see if your login details appear in any password dumps. Password dumps are large-scale data leaks, often occurring when a company’s system has been compromised by a hacker.
- For day-to-day use on your home system, set up an account with minimal privileges, and only use the ‘administrator’ account when making important system changes. This minimises the potential scope of a hacker’s damage during a system breach.
- Turn it off when you are done. This goes for your computer, laptop, WiFi router as well as your phones and tablets when possible. Always enable the lock screen on your mobile and if the function is available, use your biometric fingerprint scanner to unlock instead.
- Put a sticker over any unused webcams or microphones, you never know what third party software or malware may be lurking on your system, exposing your privacy to hackers.
- Put your finger on the problem quickly! In most countries, the legal requirements allow for a maximum period of 72 hours to report compromised data.
It’s simple: Don’t click dangerously or tap like a ticking timebomb. Protect yourself from online privacy predators.
If you notice anything suspicious, point it out immediately to IT support.
If you receive an email that is suspicious, send it to phishingreport@sappi.com and delete it from your email.
