If you are anything like the average person you spend a lot of your life online.  Whether you work through your computer or phone on a daily basis, or you talk to your friends or relatives through a screen, we spend an inordinate amount of time online.  But, it is the way our world is trending and we will continue to trend towards that. 

The internet truly is a great place, it has allowed us to connect to people throughout the world and allowed us to open global communication throughout the community of business.  It has given us a chance to express ourselves and meet people who share our same interests so that we can inspire creativity and foster communities of openness. 

However, the internet does have its downsides.  It is increasingly becoming an issue for the community of Internet users.  One of the newest threats to online security is called ransomware.  In this practice hackers take large chunks of data off major corporations and business dataframes and hold it hostage.  Then they ask for exorbitant sums of money, which businesses have no option except to pay because they need the data. 

It could be data such as people’s medical records, or patent files, or even something as simple as lines of codes.  While this may seem trivial, it could be the difference between survival and closure for many of these corporations.  So instead of trying to beat the hackers they just give in because what the hackers have is more important than trying to fight it. 

This seems like the case for many instances of internet crimes.  It is easier to give in to the demand of a mad man than to fight it, because we simply do not have the skill sets yet to figure out how to fight back.  It may seem like the opponent is just too smart to handle, but that is not true.  We can fight back.

All we have to do is look out for ourselves and for our data, it is not that hard.  Knowing what and where we have posted information is crucial to figuring out how to reign in our information and fight the hackers.  There is strength in numbers and we can fight them if we all can work together.  We don’t have to outsmart them, all we have to do is collectively decide to fight and be smarter.

Learn how to protect yourself against the hidden threat in the infographic below: