Panicking is not the way: How to respond to cyber attacks

We always hear about cyber attacks, and theoretically, we know everything about how to protect ourselves from malicious actors and how to take care of any personal information floating on digital waters, so to speak. But don’t miss one nuance – most of us are masters in theory but the reality can be more painful than you would ever imagine.

To understand the magnitude of cyber attacks, let’s just bring some numbers that, truth be told, blew my mind when I discovered first. According to Forbes, there were 2,365 cyber attacks in 2023, harming more than 300,000,000 people worldwide. This number is huge, but the rest is even more bothering: It inputs a 72% increase from 2021, as the source mentions, which speaks about the drastic increase of such cases. 

Now, when any kind of incident is growing in numbers, the probability that you might be the next victim is increasing in parallel. The bad thing is that once we experience a cyber attack we panic and make the situation no better, which is totally understandable. With this being said, we could probably agree on the fact that being educated better in this field makes us well-prepared for any attacks in the digital realm and take instant measures to fix the situation as much as it’s up to our capabilities. So, let’s get into it.

Digital solutions work best for digital threats

When we analyze different cases of cyber attacks, one thing is certain – almost always, users leave the backdoor open, so to speak. It took a lot of time to explain to people the importance of strong passwords, instead of using their name and surname or the date of their birth. In the same way, there are many other nuances of digital vigilance that we miss to follow. I can bring several examples, but the gaming industry can be a good illustration for this topic since it involves millions of users worldwide and often involves the financial and other personal data of users.

Luckily, companies operating in the field found some ways to secure those aforementioned data as much as possible by introducing digital payment solutions, particularly with cryptocurrencies. The advantages that crypto brings to the table are significant, hence the demand for Bitcoin casino games online increased drastically, challenging other gaming opportunities, especially land-based casinos.

One particular offer crypto put on the table was digital safety, hence by embracing Bitcoin as a primary payment method, gaming and gambling platforms branded themselves as a safe way to play and have entertainment without the risk of handing over any personal data to third parties. Of course, the advantages of crypto go beyond it, allowing people to have instant transfers, which isn’t as seamless in the case of traditional payment methods. The example of crypto shows that digital solutions are the best when it comes to fighting against digital threats.

Staying one step ahead

Technology, indeed, can be enhanced for security measures by default, as the example of cryptocurrencies shows above, but they can be just one piece of the puzzle that cyber threats present. As in every aspect of life, human input is always valuable, and we cannot help but take some measures on our end as a help for technology. In this regard, vigilance should be a priority against the tactics malicious actors create and develop over time. Unfortunately, some of us think that setting up a difficult password, for instance, is enough. Of course, it’s crucial but so is the maintenance of our digital space. Even those passwords shouldn’t remain the same for more than a year.

To give you some idea about the importance of human intervention in the cyber security process, I will bring up the article of the Harvard Business Review, which indicates that in 2023, 80% of data breaches were related to data stored in the cloud, and it became an attractive target for bad actors because users weren’t vigilant enough to configure their privacy settings. This is not a situation at an individual level only but also refers to the corporate world and employees, hence creating a cyber security policy is a must for modern tech companies.

A cyber attack happened: What’s Next?

We should acknowledge that despite our efforts to prevent cyber attacks, things may always happen, and not panicking is crucial because it can lead to decisions that might compound the problem instead of helping users resolve it.

Instead, follow a structured approach. Immediately change all your passwords, starting with your email account. Why? Because your email is often the gateway to resetting passwords for other accounts. Next, contact your bank and credit card companies to alert them of potential fraudulent activity. If personal data has been compromised, consider placing a fraud alert on your credit reports. And lastly, don’t forget about documenting everything – the timeline of events, any strange occurrences you noticed, and the steps you’ve taken in response. This information can be invaluable for both law enforcement and cybersecurity professionals.