Cybersecurity risks – Ways to safeguard seniors from cyber attacks

Cybersecurity risks are increasingly prevalent, especially for senior citizens. Seniors often face unique cybersecurity risks due to less familiarity with evolving digital technology and low awareness of online scans among other reasons. Unfortunately, the leading risk factor involves trusting people online who shouldn’t be trusted.

Common cybersecurity risks for seniors include:

• Phishing scams. Seniors are frequently targeted by phishing emails and messages that appear to be from legitimate companies, government agencies, or personal acquaintances asking for personal information or directing them to fraudulent websites.

• Identity theft. Seniors might need to monitor their online presence or have more internet-savvy relatives monitor for identity theft. Data breaches from supply chain attacks contribute the most to this risk for senior citizens. This type of attack targets a trusted third-party vendor who offers services vital to the supply chain.

• Medicare fraud. Hackers will masquerade as Medicare representatives and try to get credit card information from seniors, claiming their personal information needs updated in the system. Medicare representatives will never call to ask for sensitive information over the phone.

• Tech support scams. These are scams in which people pose as tech support from well-known companies to gain access to seniors’ computers, claiming their anti-virus warranty is about to expire.

• Grandparent scams. Hackers monitor Facebook and social media to determine the names of a senior's grandchildren and then contact seniors posing as one of their grandchildren to gain financial information.

What do to if you or a senior in your family has fallen prey to one of these scams:

• Stay calm and try to determine what damage was done and what personal information was provided. Document all phone conversations and take screenshots of incriminating text messages.

• Alert financial institutions. Reach out to bank and credit card companies immediately so they can work with their fraud departments.

• Report the possible scam to local authorities, including calling the FBI. Provide all relevant information to them.

• Monitor credit. Put a freeze on all three credit agencies: Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion. Put this freeze on permanently before getting on social media.

• Avoid online ads of any type since many contain trackers that collect data and expose it to scammers.

• Reject all cookies from any website. Often these cookies contain trackers to store data and track them online.

• Update passwords regularly and keep them complex.

These tools and tips won't be enough to safeguard seniors from cyber attacks if they don’t use caution on the internet. They need to remember to trust nothing and provide no information if they receive a call from an institution and to always maintain a credit lock on their account.

In this day and age, hackers increasingly prey on the most vulnerable. Sadly, seniors tend to fit this bill, which is why it’s even more crucial to be diligent on behalf of our beloved elders.

Read more:

A Guide to Safeguarding Seniors from Cyber Threats

How to Best Protect Senior Citizens from Scans Ghostery