{"id":31689,"date":"2019-03-22T11:12:20","date_gmt":"2019-03-22T15:12:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/?p=31689"},"modified":"2021-05-20T21:43:14","modified_gmt":"2021-05-21T01:43:14","slug":"dont-click-that-link-how-criminals-access-your-digital-devices-and-what-happens-when-they-do","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/dont-click-that-link-how-criminals-access-your-digital-devices-and-what-happens-when-they-do\/","title":{"rendered":"Don’t Click That Link! How Criminals Access Your Digital Devices and What Happens When They Do"},"content":{"rendered":"

Every day, often multiple times a day, you are invited to click on links sent to you by brands, politicians, friends and strangers. You download apps on your devices. Maybe you use QR codes.<\/p>\n

Most of these activities are secure because they come from sources that can be trusted. But sometimes criminals impersonate trustworthy sources to get you to click on a link (or download an app) that contains malware.<\/p>\n

At its core, a link is just a mechanism for data to be delivered to your device. Code can be built into a website which redirects you to another site and downloads malware to your device en route to your actual destination.<\/p>\n

When you click on unverified links or download suspicious apps you increase the risk of exposure to malware. Here\u2019s what could happen if you do \u2013 and how you can minimise your risk.<\/p>\n

What is malware?<\/h2>\n

Malware is defined as<\/a> malicious code that:<\/p>\n

will have adverse impact on the confidentiality, integrity, or availability of an information system.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In the past, malware described malicious code that took the form of viruses, worms or Trojan horses.<\/p>\n

Viruses embedded themselves in genuine programs and relied on these programs to propagate. Worms were generally stand alone programs that could install themselves using a network, USB or email program to infect other computers.<\/p>\n

Trojan horses took their name from the gift to the Greeks during the Trojan war in Homer\u2019s Odyssey. Much like the wooden horse, a Trojan Horse looks like a normal file until some predetermined action causes the code to execute.<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s generation of attacker tools are far more sophisticated, and are often a blend of these techniques<\/a>.<\/p>\n

These so-called \u201cblended attacks\u201d rely heavily on social engineering – the ability to manipulate someone to doing something they wouldn\u2019t normally do \u2013 and are often categorised by what they ultimately will do to your systems.<\/p>\n

What does malware do?<\/h2>\n

Today\u2019s malware comes in easy to use, customised toolkits distributed on the dark web or by well meaning security researchers attempting to fix problems.<\/p>\n

With a click of a button, attackers can use these toolkits to send phishing emails and spam SMS messages to eploy various types of malware. Here are some of them.<\/p>\n