As Halloween approaches, there’s nothing more unsettling than the thought of our online accounts – and valuable personal data – falling into the wrong hands. With online banking part of daily routines and e-commerce platforms storing user payment information, keeping login details secure is more crucial than ever. But with cyber criminals constantly evolving their tactics, staying safe online can feel more like a trick than a treat.
According to Yubico’s 2024 State of Global Authentication survey of 20,000 employees, 70 percent of respondents have been exposed to cyber attacks in their personal lives over the past year. This scary statistic highlights how frequently cyber criminals target unsuspecting victims. As Cybersecurity Awareness Month draws to a close, now is the perfect time to shed light on the most disturbing threats haunting our online accounts.
Here are three to watch out for this Halloween:
— Fearsome Phishing: Phishing involves tricking individuals into revealing personal information by impersonating legitimate people or entities through emails, text messages, or fake websites. This common tactic is used by hackers to gain access to sensitive information and is highly successful, with 80 percent of all cyber attacks resulting from stolen login credentials
— Abominable AI: Cyber criminals are using the power of AI to enhance the speed and effectiveness of their phishing attacks. This allows attackers to analyse vast amounts of data and generate sophisticated phishing schemes, making these scams even more difficult to detect. Yubico’s survey revealed that 72 percent of respondents believe online scams and phishing attacks have become more sophisticated due to the use of AI – demonstrating a growing level of concern
— Insidious identity theft: This unfortunate outcome of phishing and AI-enabled cybercrime is any user’s worst fear, as it’s impossible to retrieve stolen details once they fall into the hands of hackers. Victims of identity theft often lack strong authentication methods, relying instead on insecure and reused passwords. In fact, Yubico’s survey found that respondents’ most commonly compromised passwords protect the apps and services that hold their most confidential financial and personal information, such as payments, messaging and banking apps
To help make sure your cybersecurity doesn’t keep you up at night this Halloween, Niall McConachie, Regional Director (UK & Ireland) at Yubico, explains how users can stay safe online:
“The threat of users’ accounts being compromised through phishing and social engineering – especially those driven by AI – is exacerbated by the widespread use of outdated authentication methods like passwords. Alarmingly, our survey found that almost four in ten individuals (39 percent) believe passwords are the most secure authentication method, despite being inherently insecure and outdated.
“Simple passwords are easy to remember but also easy to guess. Updated requirements that prompt users to create complex passwords cause increased frustration when trying to log in, especially in time-sensitive situations. Furthermore, once a password is stolen, cyber criminals can easily bypass other login methods, such as codes sent by text message.
“Instead of relying on passwords to keep accounts safe, users seeking to protect their accounts with the highest level of security can use hardware security keys to manage logins across platforms and devices. Security keys are phishing-resistant and can’t be intercepted or stolen by remote attackers, meaning only the key holder can gain access to their accounts. By using the highest-assurance authentication method that a security key provides, individuals can better protect themselves and their data. This gives them one less thing to fear this Halloween.”
