Women encounter more cyber threats than their male counterparts.
So says Candice Sutherland, business development consultant at Stalker Hutchison Admiral, a liability underwriting management agency. Sutherland notes it is vital for women to become aware of cyber crime and the various dangers that come with it.
A recent survey conducted by Kaspersky Lab in conjunction with B2B International found 73% of women faced malware threats compared to 65% of men, while 22% of women have suffered a financial loss as a result of cyber crime versus 19% of men.
"These statistics clearly show cyber crime targeted against women is on the rise," says Sutherland.
The survey involved a total of 11 135 people aged 16, and 51% were men while 49% were women.
Sutherland says often the aim of cyber crime is to intentionally harm the victim using technology and social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, chat rooms, e-mails and mobile phones.
"Trolls are invariably men who use tactics like blackmail, defamation, extortion, spying, broadcasting of sexual material or obscene content, offensive messages, and vulgar photographs via cellphones and personal computers," she explains.
Women are the primary targets of cyber stalking and digital voyeurism too, which is the practice of spying on people engaged in intimate behaviours, such as undressing, sexual activity or other actions considered to be of a private nature, says Sutherland.
"The Internet and social media are used to recruit large numbers of victims, and scam artists target women whose profiles indicate they have access to money or are in high paid positions."
Stalkers frequently have an intimate relationship with their victim, she adds. "They harass their prey with the specific intention of causing fear out of a desire for revenge or humiliation. Fake e-mail and social media accounts created with a pseudonym make this easy, and tools such as spyware and GPS [global positioning systems] are used to track their target's every move.
Computers and the Internet allow predators to exploit women and girls anonymously and easily - at the click of a button."
In the face of these threats, Sutherland urges women to treat their mobile device as a mini-computer and install anti-virus, track their bank account, and enforce an effective password policy, with eight to 10 characters with numbers, capital and symbols where possible.
She also advises women to learn how to remotely wipe their devices and to be careful when using free WiFi hotspots and cloud storage.
"Technology moves at a rapid pace. There really isn't any way to avoid being online in 2015 and in the near future we will be even more intertwined and connected to cyber space. One needs to accept the hazards of progress in cyber space along with the benefits, meaning it is every consumer's responsibility to educate themselves and their families about the risks. Users, particularly females, have to approach any online interactions with at least the same degree of caution they do with physical ones," concludes Sutherland.
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