2025 is upon us, and it’s the perfect opportunity to develop some solid cybersecurity habits to better protect yourself and your data this year.
Whether for your home or your workplace, there’s always something you can do to make it tougher for cybercriminals to sneak their way into your system and steal, copy, or take your data hostage.
Last year gave us ample cybersecurity threats, and the new year is promised to bring its own challenges. There are some particular threats that are expected to be on the rise this year, including AI-powered scams, identity theft, and ransomware.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is being utilised to create more sophisticated and personalised phishing, spear-phishing, and social engineering scams and attacks. It’s also being used more in identity theft attempts, using Deepfake technology which can copy faces, voices, and user patterns to exploit individuals and businesses for financial gain.
Ransomware is predicted to continue to be the largest overarching form of cybercrime, with a focus on the healthcare sector. The majority of Australians were impacted by the Medibank and MediSecure data breaches over the last few years, and it’s these large healthcare companies that stand to be the biggest targets for ransomware attacks, due to the sheer scale of potential impact. These attacks will continue to grow in number and intricacy.
Find more out about ransomware here by the Australian Signals Directorate’s Australian Cyber Security Centre.
Cybercrime will also take advantage of the cyber skills gap; as IT exponentially expands and evolves, if an individual or company is unable to maintain upskilling, they will become increasingly vulnerable.
Knowing your risk is a big start towards protection.
What can you do?
1. Think twice before clicking email or text links.
If it appears to come from someone you know, confirm with them via a legitimate avenue. A common method is for spam to disguise itself as being sent from perhaps your boss or a colleague, relying on you to trust those around you. If it’s an attachment you aren’t expecting, contact the supposed sender via an alternate method of communication to double check the legitimacy before you potentially open up your device to cybercriminals.
2. Protect your data by changing your passwords frequently, using a unique passphrase for each system.
Passphrases tend to be longer and more secure. Enable multifactor authentication (MFA) wherever possible, even one extra layer of authentication can dramatically improve your security where you need it most.
3. Update your devices regularly so they have the latest security patches.
New security patch updates get released frequently to fix any new vulnerabilities, bugs, or exploitations in your software. In tandem, be sure to also backup your data regularly. In the event that one of these bugs ends up impacting your ability to use a device, you’ll have a secure version of all your data untouched, ready to pick up and go.
