21st Century Learning and Teaching

You turn on your computer and a message appears to tell you to update your Adobe Reader or iTunes or any software you have installed on your computer. You can’t be bothered right now, so click the option to remind you later – it’s a habit with these irritating messages, right? Then you have just opened yourself up to cybercriminals the world over.

Congratulations!

No piece of software is perfect or can ever be perfect. These imperfections within the code can be exploited by hackers to gain access to your computer. Once an exploit is found, it is patched by the software company which then sends an update to its users. This is the update that you keep ignoring. Until you take the time to click ‘Update’, you are vulnerable to attack. Your apathy is what the hackers are counting on.

The FBI is warning that members of the Anonymous hacking collective have breached computers belonging to multiple government agencies and made off with sensitive information in a series of attacks that started almost a year ago, according to a published report.

Hack linked to man who said: "You have no idea how much we can f*ck with the US."

An app called InstLike promised free likes and followers on Instagram, but asked users to provide their usernames and passwords, turning them into a botnet.

Moreover, a user would get 20 free Likes if he used the hashtag #instlike_com in his own photo captions. A search on Instagram reveals that more than 500,000 photos already contain that hashtag.

All these features made InstLike a sophisticated ecosystem that employed thousands of voluntary "zombie" accounts — but it depended on their naiveté and willingness to give up their passwords.

For Narang, who is experienced in the realm of social media-based scams, the sheer volume of people involved is scary.