Introduction: What is a Cyber Attack?

Have you ever received suspicious emails in your mailbox, or clicked into spam webpages? There are many traps on the Internet nowadays and it seems to be unavoidable since they could be in varied forms - junkmails, phishing sites, Trojan Horse, more and more. When you clicked into a malicious site, your devices will properly be controlled and all of your data becomes un-protected - this is what we called ‘cyber attacks’.

How to Prevent a Cyber Attack

To against cyber attack, professionals have been paying every effort. They develop and update anti-virus softwares, expanding their database, and hire white-hat hacker to crack common virus so as to give cybersecurity solutions. However, most of the anti-virus softwares were proved that they will slow down your devices, or even being ‘hijacked’ by new virus. The key to prevent cyber attacks is all depending on ourselves. As long as we stay alert when we are surfing on the Internet, the risk of suffering from cyber attack will be lower. Below are a few tips to prevent cyber attack:

1. Never open suspicious email

   Some hackers will pretend Banks or well-known organisation and send you an email to ask you to click on some links in the email, but DON’T! If you have any concern, you should visit their website by trusted method (like typing their link address manually, or search on Google, spam websites are less possible to be shown on Google SERP.

2. Never Install cracked software

   There are many cracked softwares on the Internet, many people will download them and ignored the risk of it. Without paying a cent to use softwares like Microsoft and Adobe is absolutely attractive, but it is harmful because most of the cracked softwares were based on the technique of virus, in other words, they are offering a ‘backdoor’ to let others attack your devices.

3. Never connect to strange networks

   Many people will access public networks in coffee shops, shopping mall and public transports. However, it is dangerous action because public networks are mostly not-protected so that hackers can easily steal your personal data through the networks.

How Do You Know if Your Computer Has Been Hacked?

According to the research, over 90% of interviewees did not realise they were being hacked or cyber attacked. It is because hackers know how to hide perfectly by different ways to do so - pretending normal softwares, attaching virus into other documents, developing new virus (Yes, the database of anti-virus is changing, so do the virus.). Does it mean we will never know how to check if our computers were infected? No, here are the tips:

1. Check the traffic or CPU usage

   Over 70% of virus rely on network, they will send unusual traffic when they are running in background so that the hackers can send demands to your devices, meanwhile, the CPU usage will increase along with the virus’ operation.

2. Scanning the computer frequently

   A trusted anti-virus software helps protecting your computer, they often update their database so you should scan your computer more frequently, like per week or even daily. Do not forget to update the software as well. They will find out the potential risks and kill the virus.

Conclusion: Protecting Yourself Against Cyber Attacks is on yourself

As mentioned, protecting yourself on the internet is all on yourself. Do bare in mind that all the softwares are just assistance. If you are still not confident with your security, or you are working for a company, you should consider paying for the cybersecurity solutions, they are the professionals who will monitor your system,