The cost of cybercrime on our emotional well-being

“I don’t care about my reputation.” That’s what Joan Jett and the Black Hearts sang before the Internet age, when counterculture was devastating, cold And the vanguard.

Today, the counterculture is the norm and our reputation Online It’s all. We micromanage our digital profiles from the devices we carry in our pockets with the goal of maximizing visibility. So when bad guys can take control of our accounts through techniques like credential stuffing, the consequences on a personal level can be devastating.

Panic, despair and shame. These are the feelings that arise when someone exposes what we do in our digital world or takes over our social networks.

The Identity Theft Resource Center (ITRC) is an American organization that provides advice and assistance to victims of this type of crime. According to this body, we are currently witnessing an “epidemic of social media account takeover”, with cases in 2021 increasing by 1044% compared to the previous year.

In addition to counting the number of crimes, the center conducted a study among people who had experienced the takeover of their social media accounts, and found that 66% of them claim to have experienced strong emotional reactions: 92% said they feel violated, 83% are worried, 78% are angry, 77% are vulnerable and 7% are suicidal.

While some may be inclined to view social media identity theft as a mere nuisance, the truth is that the numbers from that study should be taken seriously in the field of cybersecurity as they clearly demonstrate the close links that exist between reputation. Online person and their emotional well-being.

Two of my friends, both successful professionals, were victims of the same credential stuffing attack last July. Neither of them set up two-factor authentication, and they both lost control of their networks.

The cybercriminals posted messages encouraging people to join a bitcoin mining service, fake Bank of America messages and a screenshot of a bank account on their Instagram stories. You don’t have to be a cyber security expert to realize that a potential scam is hidden behind these messages. However, it can always be a tactic for phishing Effective, because these messages come from a real account of a trusted source.

The truth is, it was a bad experience for my friends. One was able to use Instagram’s facial recognition verification process, which scans your face and compare it against a large library of tagged photos, and was able to regain access to his account within 27 hours. The first thing to do is set up two-factor authentication.

My second friend decided these things weren’t worth it for him and completely gave up his social media activity. This is nothing unusual. Currently, a large number of people decide to stop using the site web After his account was hacked, he felt panic, unease and shame.

It is clear that organizations do not want their users to suffer from these feelings. It doesn’t matter if it’s a social network or a service financial technology or an e-commerce company. Any company with an exploitable user base is at risk of its customers becoming victims of a credential stuffing attack.

studying Identity fraud 2021which was carried out by Javelin Strategy and Research, a consulting firm specializing in the financial sector, indicates that account hijacking fraud caused losses of more than $6,000 million in 2020.

We seem to be in a complicated loop. On the one hand, companies create new defenses, and on the other hand, hackers develop tools that circumvent these solutions. A recent report by the analyst Aite Group examines the situation and draws some conclusions:

• Most people use the same username and password on all sites. webwhich is something that groups of cybercriminals take advantage of.
• The attack surface is increasing, making detection and mitigation more complex.
• Organizations need a solution that can analyze data in real time so they can keep up with automated attacks and prevent malicious activity before it happens.
• Companies with strong defenses will see a decrease in the volume of attacks as criminals focus their attacks on easier targets.

In addition to the economic impact of account takeover attacks, it is important to remember that these crimes have an impact on people as well. It is crucial to prevent human traumas that may undermine the fundamental principles of the ideal digital world, in which, just as in the physical world, all you want is security, protection, and trust.