In a world where cybercriminals can abuse AI to create fake recordings of your face needed to bypass video-based authentication, or where phishing copycats of legitimate websites are almost unrecognisable from their real counterparts, and media repeatedly inform us about huge data breaches, it is no surprise that the general public is worried about what the future holds.
Even tech-savvy and vigilant home admins can’t be sure that their personal data won’t leak due to third-party data breaches, nor can they monitor their children or less-aware family members 24/7 to prevent them from being fooled by an advanced scam.
In such a world, security awareness training combined with a simple cybersecurity solution is not enough. Robust high-quality defences covering numerous attack vectors such as accounts, web browsing, financial operations, mobile apps, and even physical theft are needed. Ideally, if such a solution is easy to use and its first line of defence is prevention – avoiding or stopping threats before they can do any harm – then home admins and their families will be able to rest better.
This year, ESET boosts its all-in-one solution for consumers, ESET HOME Security, with several new handy features battling the most feared attacks such as ransomware or phishing. Moreover, ESET introduces global Identity Protection* service, which provides rapid warning about personal data leaks and helps victims promptly mitigate possible identity fraud.
Growing concerns
The vast majority of British and American consumers are concerned that cyberattacks will increase or remain consistent over the coming year (97%) and become more sophisticated (69%), according to a 2024 study conducted by ThreatX and Dynata among 2,000 consumers. Only 13% express their confidence in being completely protected from cyberattacks in the next year.
Considering the volume of news about advanced cyberthreats and huge data breaches, these numbers are understandable. Here is a brief summary of the general public’s situation:
- Cybercrime is profitable, and it will grow. The global cost of cybercrime is expected to surge in the next four years, rising from $9.22 trillion in 2024 to $13.82 trillion by 2028.
- Technology is evolving, and so are cyberattacks. The recent Netacea survey among 440 businesses across the U.K. and the U.S. found that 93% of respondents believe they will face daily AI attacks within the next six months.
- Automated attacks are a constant threat. For example, Microsoft deflects more than 1,000 password attacks per second, spam messages accounted for over 46.8 percent of email traffic in December 2023, and more than 1.76 billion emails were phishing in the same year.
- The latest generation of PCs can break encryption by guessing random 6-character-long passwords in a single day, this despite the improved hashing methods used. Users of older hashing methods can get breached almost instantly.
Setting up defences
The statistics above are not here to scare you, but rather to demonstrate the scale and complexity of the current threat landscape. This means that home defenses must be comprehensive but, at the same time, easy to operate to avoid security fatigue. Yes, cybercriminals are evolving; they use AI and automation. But guess what: cybersecurity vendors (such as ESET) can do the same.
Keeping all these threats in mind, proper home security should be multi-layered, covering multiple attack vectors and focusing on prevention. Here are some basic rules and solutions that people concerned about their cybersecurity should consider:
- Cyber Hygiene – Besides awareness education, proper cyber hygiene also involves backups, regular patching and updates, encryption, and password hygiene.
- Password Manager and Two-Factorial Authentication – An average person now uses 168 passwords and manages nearly 200 accounts. Considering how often cybercriminals attack credentials, it is quite useful to have these two solutions.
- Antivirus– High-quality antivirus is a must nowadays. Don’t rely only on free or in-built protection.
- Modern Endpoint Security– This involvesAntispyware, Anti-Phishing, Ransomware Shield, and Script-Based Attack Protection combined with Advanced Machine Learning and sandbox technology that analyses software before execution.
- Parental Control – Parental Control offers a general overview of children’s online activities and flexible options to restrict access to some content or screen time.
- Anti-Theft – Just recently in London, a mobile was stolen every six minutes in 2023. An Anti-Theft tool helps track stolen devices and protects their data.
- VPN – Virtual Private Network is a technology that enables the creation of a secure and encrypted connection between a device and the internet.
Focus on quality
ESET HOME Security is an all-in-one, subscription-based solution offering all these technologies and covers multiple operation systems from Windows, to macOS, to Android, and also improves iOS security.
Despite being packed with a number of capabilities, it’s not hard to operate. ESET HOME Security comes with its own complete security management platform, ESET HOME, which allows easy management and sharing protection with family and friends.
Moreover, it is constructed in a way that allows low usage of your PC’s system resources, a fact also acknowledged in 2023 AV-Comparatives Performance Test.
As a global leader in digital security with more than 30 years of experience, ESET is committed to progress and staying ahead of adversaries. That’s why ESET constantly improves its technology, including ESET HOME Security.
This year, ESET comes with several new security and privacy features while improving already-existing ones:
- New Global Dark Web Monitoring – ESET Identity Protection* scours websites on the dark web, black market chat rooms, blogs, and other data sources to detect the illegal trading and selling of users’ personal information. ESET technology sends prompt alerts so they can take immediate action.
- New ESET Folder Guard – This technology helps protect Windows users’ valuable data from malicious apps and threats, such as ransomware, worms, and wipers (malware that can damage users’ data). Users can create a list of protected folders and files in these folders; these can’t be modified or deleted by untrusted applications.
- New Multithread Scanning – Improves scanning performance for multi-core processor devices using Windows by distributing scanning requests among available CPU cores. There can be as many scanning threads as the machine has numbers of processors.
- New Link Scanner – This feature improves ESET Mobile SecurityAnti-phishing (EMS), which, in general, blocks potential phishing attacks coming from websites or domains listed in the ESET malware database. The Link Scanner allows EMS to check every link a user tries to open, not only those coming from supported browsers and social network apps. For instance, a phishing link that pops up in a game will also be checked.
- Improved Gamer mode– This feature is for users who demand uninterrupted usage of their software without pop-up windows and want to minimise CPU usage. The improved version allows users to select applications that will not run in Gamer mode. When running an excluded application in full screen mode, Gamer mode will not be used. For cautious players, there is also a new option to display interactive alerts while gamer mode is running.
- Improved Password Manager – ESET’s Password Managernow includes an option to remotely log out of Password Manager when logged in on other devices. Users can check their password against the password breach list and can view a security report that informs them if they use any weak or duplicate passwords for their stored accounts. Password Manager has an integrated option to use third-party programs as an optional two-factor authentication (2FA) solution.
- Improved Cyber Security for Mac users– ESET HOME Security tiers for Mac users now have a new unified Firewall with both basic and advanced setup options in the main Graphical User Interface (GUI). This means the solution is tailored to the needs of users from basic to more advanced, and without unnecessary settings.
Home is where you feel safe
Despite the digital world becoming more complex and dangerous, this doesn’t mean that average users should constantly look over their shoulders. Yes, they need to stay vigilant, but home should first and foremost be a place of peace and comfort.
So set up defences, update them regularly, and enjoy your time with your family knowing that your cybersecurity is left to professionals.