According to a survey conducted by Kasperky Lab and B2B International, women have been found to be less aware of cyberthreats. Only 19% of women believe they may fall victim to cybercriminals while every fourth man (25%) considers it possible. Moreover, according to the survey women generally know less about cyberthreats than men. For example, 27% of men and 38% of women are unaware of ransomware; 23% of men and 34% of women know little about mobile malware; 21% of men and 34% of women have a limited idea what an exploit is. This lack of awareness can cause a user to pay less attention to protecting themselves against cyberthreats. When they allow other people (children, friends, colleagues, etc.) to use their main device, 36% of women do nothing to protect their data because they “see no risk”. Only 28% of men behave in the same way. 75% of men and 68% of women make back-up copies. 13% of women have no security solutions on their devices, compared with 10% of men. There seems to be a connection between awareness of cyberthreats and the number of cyber-incidents faced by women and men. In the survey it appears that over a 12-month period more women than men faced malware incidents (73% vs 65%), although men were more likely to suffer financial consequences (22% vs 19%). Typically, men more often spend money on buying special programmes designed to clean the system or to protect it in the future whereas women prefer to turn to IT professionals for help. However, there are some threats that men face more often than women: for example, in...
If you’re a woman who plays or even just talks about video games online, odds are you’re encountered the misogynist flying monkeys of the Internet: Troops of bizarrely embittered young men, often using the name “Gamergate,” who aim inchoate rage at all sorts of women they encounter, but particularly feminists and women they suspect might be–gasp–sexually active. Ordinary women find that being known as female while playing online video games means having shocking number of sexually harassing comments thrown your way. Under the circumstances, it’s not surprising that a study that showed that men who are bad at video games are more likely to harass women online, went viral. Psychology researchers from the University of New South Wales and Miami University did a study where they compared men’s performance playing Halo 3 online to the amount of misogynist harassment they were dishing out. The result? A direct and strong correlation between how badly men were doing in the game and how nasty they were to women. Men, no matter how good they were, were cordial to each other. But the men who were good at the game were generally nice to women and men who sucked were the ones dishing out sexualized abuse to the women they...
How to be safe online? Never share your password, and make sure your password is unpredictable. Do not use your footy club, your pet’s name or your birthdate! Choose a password that uses letters, numbers, lowercase, uppercase, and characters. Never use the same password for different accounts. Limit the information you share online. If you wouldn’t put it on the front page of the daily paper, don’t put it on Facebook or another social networking site. Don’t give your full name, address, or phone number to anyone online that you don’t trust or know. This is especially important in chat rooms, when negotiating jobs or deals, or making plans through meet-up sites. Be mindful when installing programs or agreeing to terms.When you sign up for newsletters, install programs, or agree to anything, read the fine print. If you do not want to receive junk mail or get put on a telemarketer list, look for a small box near the bottom of the page that asks if you want to receive information and offers from other companies. The best sites will have a statement listed that they will not sell your name to other companies (though they may still send you e-mails themselves). Make sure your computer’s security settings are updated regularly, and exercise caution when downloading from the Internet. Use an anti-virus program, an anti-spyware program, and a firewall.Surfing the internet without these things is unsafe and invites spam, hackers, and viruses onto your computer. Having these safeguards on your computers protects you from things you might not even realize are threats. Make sure to keep them updated to...
