Cybercrime: How to Face and Prevent Virtual Attacks?

The network virtual crime or cyber-crime, broke boundaries and is present throughout the world. The invasions are constant and at a high level. It is a ubiquitous danger, which is widespread anywhere and can invade various media, such as cell phones, computers, tablets , among other devices connected to the internet .

Types of Internet Crimes

Invading a computer with malicious codes to crack passwords, stealing and manipulating documents and information, destroying data, altering information, carrying out pedophilia , money laundering, financial fraud , harassment, espionage, blackmail, among other crimes, are common criminal practices in the virtual environment .

The criminal does not need to be armed with a firearm or physically present at the crime scene. It just needs to access your computer, a network, software or hardware. And for that there are several ways.

The most common practice is through malware that invades e-mails, software and websites through the technique phishing to influence the click on links infected by viruses.

Both the hacker and the cracker have computational skills at an exceptional depth level. The difference in nomenclature is that the cracker uses this knowledge to practice illegal activities on computer systems connected to the network. And the hacker can use his ability to work honestly, but that also does not prevent him from committing the crime, since he has this knowledge.

Proactive and Preventive Management Against Cyber-crime

To combat and solve cyber crimes, the criminal experts of the Institutes of Criminalistics of Brazil carry out the following proactive and preventive actions:

•     Implementation of new technologies information security to prevent the action of digital criminals;
•     Acquisition or development of computer tools with forensic technology to perform expert examinations;
•     Monitoring by court order of computer networks with suspected fraudulent practices;
•     Direction, strategy and joining forces of national and international institutions;

Virtual Security Tips

Check out important proactive and preventive actions you need to take to improve virtual security both in the corporate environment and on personal computers:

•     Invest in information security: it is a preventive action to protect data, files and information that are on any device or even in the cloud . Make all users of the same network aware of the importance of accessing the internet correctly. In companies, implement security policies and contingency plans.
•     Take the digital inventory: this tip can be used more in a corporate environment. Map and make a detailed listing of all equipment in use for monitoring and checking for possible threats.
•     Create secure passwords: choose more complex passwords with numbers, letters and special characters and do not use the same security key to access multiple virtual accounts.
•     Be careful with emails and websites: access links and emails from trusted and well-known sources. Download and trade on reputable sites.
•     Install a reliable antivirus and activate the firewall: install and keep the antivirus updated to check and block threats and eliminate viruses. Activate the firewall to prevent malicious code from being hacked. Use an advanced antivirus like total security to combat the latest cyber attack.
  
•     Back up periodically: the best protection to prevent the loss of files and data is to regularly back up data to hard drives or remote servers.
•     Perform security updates: keep your operating system and software up to date to avoid program vulnerability and protect against threats.
•     Use secure Wi-Fi: networks networks for internet access may be infected. Therefore, access and perform financial transactions on trusted networks.
•     Monitor and have a critical sense of use: constantly check applications and use the internet wisely. Be wary of 'incredible' promotions , awards, discounts and any other type of action that could be fraudulent. Never register your personal and bank details on untrustworthy sites or send them by email.

In view of the significant number of cyber attacks, we experience a shortage of specialized experts to solve this type of crime. To combat cyber-crime , the digital expert needs to have higher education in the area of ​​computing , information technology or other related areas and a constant update of knowledge through training and specializations in the area of ​​computer forensics to keep up with new technologies, investigate crime and identify the cracker.