My writing about cybersecurity threats has almost become a chore at this point; there are just so many vulnerabilities out there, and many can be dealt with if everyone just paid a tad bit more attention than they currently do. The Google Play store, for example, keeps letting in malware disguised as apps; unaware individuals download them, even if someone familiar with the internet needs only to take a single glance at the copy-paste reviews and the terrible grammar to know that something’s wrong. However, Google refuses to put in the necessary legwork and people suffer. Cases of cybersecurity breaches just seem to be increasing at an alarmingly exponential rate, with incremental damages due to more and more personal information being stored online. People have their literal social security details available on their phones, and yet refuse to download password managers or go through the minute annoyance of two-factor authentication. At some point, it’s just shooting oneself in the foot to not invest in security options. Then again, the average individual should be blamed less for falling into security traps when we can hold the corporations behind building such fragile equipment accountable.
To make matters worse, cybercriminals seem to be exceeding their chosen career paths with every coming day. Lockdown probably helped out a ton, since it forced everyone to shift towards online work and gave such seedy individuals more time to find new loopholes in pre-existing systems. Android isn’t infallible, Apple isn’t infallible, and routers certainly aren’t. The Atlas VPN study utilized data from Kaspersky, which itself relied on many government sources for information. The figures we’re looking at may vary in the specifics but paint the same general picture. That is to say that since 2010, there has been a massive uptick in router vulnerabilities being exposed by cyber criminals.
In all data compilations, 2017 seems to be a real tipping point for cybersecurity threats, with a second, much more significant uptick being noted in 2020. While I can’t exactly speak for the former, the latter makes sense for reasons that I’ve highlighted above. All sources agree that 2020 was the worst year in terms of router-oriented cybersecurity threats (and I’d wager cybersecurity threats in general as well). However, there is some good news: 2022 seems to be much, much better than 2020, even if conditions are much worse than in preceding years.
Read next: Apple Plans To Wipe Out Passwords Forever As Company Puts Its Passkeys Into The Spotlight
by Arooj Ahmed via Digital Information World
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