Cyberattacks are on the rise: “A good lock on the doors of your homes and offices is no longer enough. We must have even better locks on the doors to our digital world.”

Attacks and attempted attacks on individuals and companies are on the rise; in 2022 their number grew by one fifth compared to the previous year. Telekom Slovenije’s Cybersecurity Operations Centre has noted a major growth in abuse or attempted abuse of login data (passwords, personal data, payment card data). We should therefore make sure to carefully protect our passwords and change them on a regular basis.

​The most frequent types of attacts that hackers use to target individuals and businesses include malware (worms, trojans, etc.) and ransomware that attackers most often deliver to the victim through phishing attacks or software vulnerabilities. Email breaches and so-called executive phishing email attacks remain very popular methods for hackers to reroute payments to their accounts. Distributed denial of service attacks (DDoS) and network scanning to look for vulnerabilities also occur on a regular basis.

“A good lock on the doors of your homes and offices is no longer enough. We must make sure that the doors to our digital world have even better locks, and that applies to the mobile phone, the tablet, the home and office computer. We must ensure security in the digital environment at home, at work and when we are on the road, everywhere and on every device that we use to access the internet. We are not nearly aware enough about how important this is,” emphasised Metod Platiše, cybersecurity expert at Telekom Slovenije. He also emphasises the importance of careful password management: “It is essential to properly handle passwords that we use to access devices and user accounts. We must make sure to change them regularly, to never give them to others, and not to email or text them. All of these are major security risks.”

Telekom Slovenije has prepared five simple recommendations for safe internet use:
• Think twice before visiting websites with questionable content and security. These often promise attractive promotions that are hard to resist; however, they are mostly frauds for collecting data on your payment cards and passwords.
• When shopping online, make sure to only enter your personal data on websites you completely trust. Be especially careful when entering payment card data.
• Use different passwords for different websites and services. Make sure to securely store your passwords. Password managers are recommended.
• Email is a very popular “pond”, where hackers are looking for victims with so-called phishing email attacks. Be very mindful about who the sender is and their email address. Do not click on links in emails from unknown senders and do not open any attachments, and especially do not send them any personal data, passwords or payment card numbers, as legitimate service providers never ask for your data in this way.
• Activate secure website checks on your mobile phone, computer or other devices that you use to access the internet using a service such as Varen splet (Secure Net) or Varen poslovni splet (Secure Business Net), as they significantly reduce the danger of your computer or mobile phone being hacked.

What kind of services are Varen splet and Varen poslovni splet?
Varen splet (Secure Net) and Varen poslovni splet (Secure Business Net) intercept over a million online threats every month, protecting users from online fraud, computer viruses, downloading malware and from attempts at personal data theft or abuse. The services protect mobile phones, notebooks, computers, tablets, smart TV sets, smart refrigerators and all other devices that are connected to the internet over a fixed or mobile connection. The protection is even active when roaming abroad. The services currently protect users from over 12 million malicious websites, and subscribers can also set additional layers of protection to manage the internet traffic on their connection.

Telekom Slovenije’s subscribers can protect their devices by sending a text message with the keyword VAREN SPLET to 1918, or they can activate the Varen splet service through their Moj Telekom self-service portal, at Telekom Slovenije’s points of sale or by calling 080 8000. They can switch off the service if they no longer wish to use it. Mobile devices are protected for EUR 0.99 per month, and the home internet network for EUR 1.49 per month.

Business users can protect their network and mobile devices with the Varen poslovni svet service.