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Anna Caruk Scammers? Trolling? Phishing? Never heard of them before

Do you remember what your parents told you every time you wanted to use the computer? Don’t post personal details online! Well, there is a very good reason for this advice. With the popularity of the Internet growing rapidly over the past decades, more and more people are sharing personal information. Most of them have social mediasocial mediasocial media accounts, where they post anything and everything about their lives, even their real names, addresses, phone numbers, and more! Why is this a problem, you might ask? There are hundreds of thousands of Internet users who can use this data to try and take advantage of it.

Today, most teenagers and young adults have acquired digital citizenshipdigital citizenshipdigital citizenship, which means that they are able to use the Internet and other technologies in a responsible manner and that they are part of an online communityonline communityonline community. However, not everybody can be trusted with all your information. Not everyone you engage withengage withengage with online has good intentions when it comes to the data shared. Some people might attempt different forms of identity theftidentity theftidentity theft, claiming to be someone they are not, often for monetary gain, but sometimes just to trolltrolltroll. TrollingtrollingTrolling is a very common practice on social media. People spread fake newsfake newsfake news in order to push an agendapush an agendapush an agenda or just out of boredom - the reasons can vary. This is where sometimes a grey areagrey areagrey area appears in terms of laws, because we have digital rightsdigital rightsdigital rights, which are quite complex. The concept of digital rights means that every single person has the right to be able to use, create, and publish mediamediamedia online. It also involves rights to privacyprivacyprivacy, meaning that you can withhold personal details from companies if you wish.

Not allowing certain companies or websites access to your personal details can improve your online safety. One of the threats in the virtual world is phishingphishingphishing, a type of social engineeringsocial engineeringsocial engineering attack often used to steal user data, which is a very common way for hackers to obtain personal information such as credit card numbers and account details by pretending to be a trusted source. These phishing attacks can lead to identity theft and loss of large amounts of money. There are ways to preventpreventprevent the attacks, such as never revealing sensitive information to people you do not know or to sites you are unsure of. However, phishing attackers will often pretend to be a trusted site to trick people into revealing their sensitive datasensitive datasensitive data. Phishers will often choose specific demographicsdemographics demographics who may be an easier target for them. People who are more likely to be targeted are the elderly, as they can often be more trusting of these scammersscammers [scammer]scammers. However, there are many older people who use the internet safely and responsibly. These seniors are often referred to as grey surfersgrey surfers [grey surfer]grey surfers.

Another phrase you may have heard your parents say to you while you were browsing the web is “don’t believe everything you read on the Internet.” This is a very important thing to keep in mind, as the Internet is a very powerful tool, especially in the age of social media.  As more and more people spread misinformation, fake news, or just lies in general, it has made it incredibly important for the Internet users to have good critical thinkingcritical thinkingcritical thinking skills. This means being able to recognise which information posted online is true and which is false. This is now more important than ever, with most of us getting at least some of their news from digital textsdigital texts [digital text]digital texts which could be written by anyone. Finding credible sourcescredible sources [credible source]credible sources of news online is difficult as the number of people who can post things on the web is in the hundreds of millions. Many people are still unable to determine which sources are credible and which are not because of the digital dividedigital dividedigital divide, that is the lack of equality in the access to the Internet.  Thus, it might be hard to get better at using something you hardly ever have the opportunity to use.

1 Źródło: Anna Caruk, licencja: CC BY-SA 3.0.