DENVER (KDVR) — When it comes to the threat of potential cyber attacks from Russia, experts say the average Coloradan will likely be impacted by hackers targeting third-party apps on their phone.
Given how we’re in a situation where we have massive financial sanctions being levied against Russia, the vice president of cyber risk at the Denver-based Optiv Security says when it comes to cyber attacks, Russian hackers will also likely start by targeting our finances too.
But since cybercriminals tend to go after larger investors and accounts, experts believe the average consumer probably wouldn’t be hit too hard, except when it comes to those third-party apps.
“This is about all of those shopping apps, all of those banking apps, all of the applications where they will either stop working or you will start to see an attack on that infrastructure,” said James Turgal, Vice President of Cyber Risk at Optiv Security.
The third-party apps include Venmo, PayPal and Apple Cash.
Fortunately, experts say it’s unlikely our bank accounts will be impacted, even though they’re linked to those apps.
“It’s pretty unlikely given how our infrastructure is set up,” Turgal said.
According to Turgal, a hacker would have to have a person’s password to move any of their funds, plus funds are insured by the FDIC.
According to the mobile security firm Lookout, 80% of consumers have had their emails leaked onto the dark web.
Due to data breaches, experts at Lookout found these are the Top 20 passwords found on the dark web:
- 123456
- 123456789
- Qwerty
- Password
- 12345
- 12345678
- 111111
- 1234567
- 123123
- Qwerty123
- 1q2w3e
- 1234567890
- DEFAULT
- 0
- Abc123
- 654321
- 123321
- Qwertyuiop
- Iloveyou
- 666666