Learn your cyber ABCs
to stay safe online
View these cyber safety videos provided by the Australian Federal Police.
Online shopping scams
An online shopping scam involves cybercriminals creating realistic but fake online stores selling items at heavily reduced prices or fake ads on legitimate classified websites.
Once a buyer places an order, items are either not delivered or fake products are received in their place.
Money Muling
Money mules are people who knowingly, or in some cases unknowingly, help criminals launder their illicit money.
Money mules are recruited in various ways, including job ads that seem too good to be true, spam emails that promise a commission in exchange for transferring money, or being asked to provide help to someone they are in an online relationship with.
Malicious software and malware
A common type of cybercrime that people may come across is malicious software – better known as malware.
Once installed on your device, malware may allow cyber criminals to access your files or watch what you’re doing.
Phishing
Phishing is an attempt by cybercriminals to trick victims into giving them personal information or downloading malware.
To do this they often send messages pretending to be from companies you know and trust and direct you to click links or reply with sensitive information via email, text, social media or phone.
Viruses and worms
Viruses are a type of malware, or malicious software that can spread from one device to another inside files. They rely on people opening a file and sending it on to others to spread.
There are multiple ways to be infected with a virus or worm, and these viruses can steal your data, download spyware or ransomware to your device and delete your files
Business email compromise
Business email compromise is where cybercriminals either use a fake email account that looks or sounds like a business’s real email address, or they gain access and compromise a legitimate email account.
They then use these accounts to try and defraud people and businesses out of money or goods.
Ransomware and extortion
Ransomware is a type of malicious software that encrypts and locks down the files on a victim’s computer or device. The attacker then demands a ransom to decrypt those files.
Ransomware can make its way onto your devices through malicious attachments or links in emails, social media or accessing unsafe websites.
Remote access scams
A remote access scam is when someone contacts you, often claiming to be from a well-known company, and asks you to download software to your device to help ‘fix a problem’.
Once cybercriminals have access to your device, they can use it to steal your personal data, access files and banking details.
Botnets
Botnets are networks of devices infected by viruses that are remotely controlled by cybercriminals.
Cybercriminals using a single device are limited to the number of actions they can complete, however creating a network of infected devices enables them to carry out larger scale attacks with increasing speed.
Keyloggers
Keyloggers are a type of spyware that can be installed on devices to keep a record of what you type on your keyboard.
While keyloggers installed on a computer by the device owner are perfectly legal, the threat is when keyloggers are used for criminal purposes such as identity theft, stalking and fraud.
Remote access trojans
Remote access trojans are a type of malicious software or malware that is used to monitor and control devices.
This means they could wipe your hard drive, use your network to commit crimes anonymously, steal your usernames and passwords to things like bank accounts and steal your sensitive images or use your webcam to monitor what you’re doing.
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