Tag Archive for: older

Older People on the Internet: Keys to Safe Surfing

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Did you know that life expectancy in Spain reached 83.3 years in 2021? This means that we are living longer and longer. And thanks to the development of information and communications technology, we lead more and more connected lives. This presents society with the challenge of providing older people with safe internet surfing. 

The health crisis accelerated connectivity, which ceased to be a trend to become a reality: teleworking is now consolidated, and so is online commerce and entertainment, telemedicine, digital banking and the way we relate to our loved ones, remotely.

In 2021, as a result of the rise of remote activities, Spain became the most targeted country. According to data provided in its latest computer threat report, drafted by the cybersecurity company ESET, Spain suffered more than 51 billion desktop attacks, far more than the attacks unleashed on France (21 billion), Germany (19 billion) and Poland (18 billion). Bad data driven by the growth of teleworking across the globe.  

Older people on the internet: messages and news 

20% of Spain’s population, some nine and a half million people, are elderly. In the current scenario, the number of people over 65 who have gone digital has also grown. In its latest report on the digital divide, the Unión Democrática de Pensionistas y Jubilados de España (Democratic Union of Pensioners and Retired People of Spain), UDP, points out that the regular use of the Internet by this group of people has increased in recent years, from 32.7% in 2017 to 60% in 2021.   

The MayoresUDP Scale points to the exchange of “messages with family and friends” via WhatsApp or SMS as the main use of the internet by the elderly, with 85.1%, followed by 80.8% for people who use the internet to keep themselves well-informed. Other common activities are those related to banking and healthcare, or online shopping. However, it states that among “older, less educated and less affluent people” the various digital activities decrease significantly.   

Older people in cyber danger 

One of the most common complaints among the older population is the lack of technological skills and the need for…

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Nuspire’s Q1 2022 Threat Data Show Resurgence in Older Attack Methods

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Nuspire’s latest threat report data showed an increase in all three of the threat classifications it studies – malware, botnets and exploits – with many threat actors leveraging older tactics. In Nuspire’s webinar reviewing its findings, Josh Smith, Cyber Threat Analyst for Nuspire, and Justin Heard, Threat Intel & Rapid Response for Nuspire, reviewed the key data and trends they uncovered and offered actionable tips to combat current cybersecurity threats.

Download the latest report

Cybersecurity Live - Boston

Malware Activity Increased 4.76%

Nuspire saw nearly 3.5 million malware events in Q1 2022, an increase of 4.76% over the previous quarter. While the company was able to isolate 1,342 unique variants, two rose to the top in terms of prominence: VBA agent and JavaScript activity.

Top Malware Detections: VBA & JavaScript

VBA agents imitate legitimate Microsoft Word or Excel files with a lure attempting to trick the end-user into enabling macros. Once enabled, the macros activate a malicious script that contacts the command-and-control server to download an additional payload on the victim’s machine.

“VBA agents are one of the top issues we’ve seen for a while, accounting for nearly 30% of all malware variants we witnessed,” said Josh. “However, Microsoft recently announced plans to block macros by default on Office products files from the internet, and coincidentally, we saw VBA agent activity decrease at the same time.”

Josh added that in the same time period, the Nuspire team saw an increase in the use of JavaScript agents.

“This could potentially be a result of the decrease in VBA agent usage, and that cyber attackers are shifting tactics” he said.

JavaScript agents are a type of malware loader that typically deploy via drive-by download. When a user visits either a legitimate website that has been compromised or a malicious site, a payload is silently downloaded and installed on the victim’s machine, giving the threat actors access. These loaders can additionally be packaged up with the appearance of a legitimate email attachment and deployed during malicious spam campaigns.

“While malware being on the rise is concerning, it’s important to remember that we can do…

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Silver Linings: Cybercrime hits older people hardest in 2021

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The FBI’s March 22 cybercrime report breaks down victims by age. AARP Maine

Cyber fraud was up 7% nationwide in 2021, with people older than 60 the most-often targeted, according to an FBI report released recently.

The FBI Internet Crime Report called the rise in cybercrime “unprecedented,” with almost 850,000 reports and losses of more than $6.9 billion.

With 1,402 victims, Maine ranked 46th in the country (including US territories). The state was 52nd in losses, with a total of $7.26 million being swindled, and 42nd in the number of swindlers (507).

But that does not mean it is less of a problem here, said Phil Chin, the volunteer fraud watch spokesman for AARP Maine.

Former CBS news writer Phil Chin is the AARP Maine fraud watch spokesman. Submitted photo

“Sure, there was an increase in Maine,” Chin said in a recent telephone interview. “It might not seem so compared to California (No. 1 in victims, losses and swindlers), but it has in part to do with population.”

Florida, Texas, New York and Illinois were also among the top five states in numbers of victims.

Maine is “doing about the same” as other states considering population density and the high percentage of older people, Chin said.

“Cyber criminals know no boundaries,” he said. “Cybercrime is equal opportunity.”

Chin and his partner, Pam Partridge, hold monthly Zoom seminars titled AARP Maine Fraud Watch Show on the second Thursday of every month. You can go to aarp.org/fraudwatch to register for these sessions.

In March they discussed celebrity scams and IRS scams and took questions from participants.

Other types of scams include email compromise schemes, which for the fourth consecutive year, had the largest dollar losses, more than $2.4 billion nationwide, according to the FBI report. This scheme mostly affects businesses.

“For example, an entity might be asked to conduct a wire transfer of funds under false pretense, with the loot flowing to a crook,” according to a news release from AARP Maine.

Another type of swindle, the “confidence scam,” accounted for the third-highest losses to individual victims. These scams numbered 24,299, with a total of $956 million in…

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WhatsApp to stop supporting older Android, iOS phones from November 1

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WhatsApp will soon stop working on some smartphones which the instant messaging platform will no longer support. Beginning November 1, WhatsApp will stop supporting Android phones running versions before Android 4.1. If you have an old Android phone that runs on these older versions of systems, you may want to consider upgrading to a new device.

On the Apple front, WhatsApp will only support devices that run on iOS 10 and newer versions of the operating system. Meanwhile, WhatsApp will only support KaiOS 2.5.0 after November 1, so JioPhone and JioPhone 2 users can continue to use the platform.

The move of eliminating support for older devices, which platforms like WhatsApp will go ahead with once in a while, is likely a necessary precaution taken to improve the platform’s overall security by having it support once recent operating system versions that will offer users a certain level of control over privacy and security.

What happens if you are on an unsupported system?

If your phone doesn’t meet the above-mentioned requirements post-November 1, your account may be automatically logged out and you may not be able to log in again from the now unsupported device.

WhatsApp also mentions on its website that if you’re moving from an older KaiOS based device to another smartphone platform , there is no way to retrieve your chat history.

How to check my Android/ iOS version?

To check your Android version, you can open the Settings app on your Android phone and scroll down to find the about phone option. Tap on it to open its sub-sections and look for the ‘Android Version’ option. On iOS, you can open the Settings app and navigate to General/ About / Software Version.

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