TBSN #21 - Bizarre misuses of the internet
The internet has been deeply integrated into people’s daily lives. It's impossible to imagine life without the internet. But... it's also being misused a lot.
According to me, the internet was like a blessing for human beings. It has a lot of positives uses nowadays in our day-to-day life.
Today, it is almost impossible to imagine our existence without the internet. It has been deeply integrated into people’s daily lives.
Access to tons of information has become much easier for everyone than it was a decade ago. As of 2017, the number of active internet users in India was more than 600 million which is 45% of its total population.
BUT, it is also being misused a lot. Yes, and we will see the dangerous side of the WWW (World Wide Web) and how the internet is being misused in this article.
Top 5 Ways the Internet is Being Misused
1. Cyberbullying
Yes, Cyberbullying ranks number one on the list.
Whether you call it Cyber Harassment or Online Bullying, it includes posting rumors, threatening, abusing, posting sexual remarks, hate speech, making someone’s private information public or any other kinds of bullying or harassment done via digital or electronic means.
According to Techjury, more than 34% of the kids in the US have experienced some kind of cyberbullying at least once.
There do exist certain law enforcement to prevent this kind of cybercrime but still, the situation is not under control.
Almost all the countries have cybercrime department which you can take help from in case you’re a victim. If you’re from India then you can visit the government’s cybercrime portal to report or learn more about cyberbullying.
2. Online Identity Theft
Online identity theft or internet identity theft is a kind of cybercrime that involves hacking into someone’s data to commit fraud like stealing your credit card details, SSN, withdrawing money illegally, etc.
Not only these but your sensitive information can also be used to commit crimes in your name and you will be held responsible for that crime.
Millions of people fall victims to some kind of identity theft by means of the internet every year.
Some tactics which are used to gain your personal sensitive information by cybercriminals are:
Phishing
Malicious software
Pharming
Weak passwords
Unsecure websites
You should always be careful while installing any new software from the internet and do not use the same password on multiple websites.
3. Internet Piracy
Distributing or selling someone else’s contents over the internet without the proper consent of the original owner of the content is called piracy.
According to LifeWire, Internet piracy is the use of the internet to illegally copy the content, infringing on the copyright of the content owner.
To make you understand better, let me provide you with a great example of online piracy:
Movies.
Yes, within a week of the release, most of the movies are copied and uploaded on the Torrent websites where anyone can download illegally. This way the original creators of the movie face loss in their businesses.
4. Hacking
On 24th November 2014, a hacker group named “Guardians of Peace” hacked the Sony Pictures film studio server and took more than 100 terabytes of data from the company. They even copied an unreleased upcoming movie called “The Interview” and made it available for free on the internet. [Report]
Data safety has become one of the major concerns today. If you do not maintain the proper security majors for all your online and electronic forms of data then it can be hacked and your online presence can be compromised.
You must follow some standard procedures to avoid getting your data hacked or compromised.
5. Wrong or Outdated Information
The old or outdated information stays forever and is not deleted from the internet and they are called internet garbage.
A quick example:
Your college is organizing a cultural fest published information everywhere on the internet about the fest this year. And, what will happen to that information in the next coming years?
Nothing… it will just stay there forever and cause hindrance while searching for updated information.
That’s it.
I would love to hear your thoughts on this.
Hit reply and let me know what you think about the issue.
The original article was published on AspiringYouths blog.