Cyberattacks: Should you withdraw all your money from the bank?

RECENTLY, the issue of cyberattacks has been widely discussed among the public, with financial and government institutions’ websites becoming targets of hackers.

This has prompted many, including this author, to wonder whether our money in the bank is safe and what could happen to our personal data.

After all, almost everything is done through smartphones nowadays. From paying bills and transferring money to shopping and applying for government assistance, nearly all transactions are conducted online.

So, whenever news of a cyberattack emerges, some people begin to feel uneasy, fearing that they might wake up the next morning to find their bank accounts emptied.

However, there is no need to panic. A cyberattack does not necessarily mean that a system has been successfully breached or that customers’ money has been stolen. Some attacks are detected and blocked before they can cause damage.

That said, we should not become so complacent that we neglect our own security.

For this author, one persistent problem is that users still fall for suspicious links, share their one-time passwords (OTPs) and use the same password for multiple accounts.

If we already know it is a trap, why would we still fall for it?

At the same time, organisations entrusted with handling the public’s data must ensure that their security systems are continuously strengthened.

They should not simply focus on collecting users’ information only for the public to bear the consequences when a data breach occurs.

The reality is that technology has made life easier, but the threats have also become increasingly sophisticated. There is no need to panic every time we hear news of a cyberattack.

Just do not become so careless that cybercriminals strike before we even realise what is happening.