Top 5 Bizarre Misuses of the Internet

According to me, the internet was like a blessing for human beings. It has a lot of positives uses nowadays in our day-to-day life.

Today, it is almost impossible to imagine our existence without the internet. It has been deeply integrated into people’s daily lives.

Access to tons of information has become much easier for everyone than it was a decade ago. As per 2017, the number of active internet users in India was more than 600 million which is 45% of its total population.

BUT, it is also being misused a lot. Yes, and we will see the dangerous side of the WWW (World Wide Web) and how the internet is being misused in this article.

So, here we go…

Top 5 Ways the Internet is Being Misused

1. Cyberbullying

Yes, Cyberbullying ranks number one in the list.

Whether you call it as Cyber Harassment or Online Bullying, it includes posting rumours, threatening, abusing, posting sexual remarks, hate speech, making someone’s private information public or any other kinds of bullying or harassment done via digital or electronic means.

According to Techjury, more than 34% of the kids in the US have experienced some kind of cyberbullying at least once.

There do exist certain law enforcement to prevent this kind of cybercrime but still, the situation is not under control.

Almost all the countries have cyber crime department which you can take help from in case you’re a victim. If you’re from India then you can visit the government’s cybercrime portal to report or learn more about cyberbullying.

2. Online Identity Theft

Online identity theft or internet identity theft is a kind of cybercrime which involves hacking into someone’s data to commit fraud like stealing your credit card details, SSN, withdrawing money illegally, etc.

Not only these but your sensitive information can also be used to commit crimes in your name and you will be held responsible for that crime.

Millions of people fall victims of some kinds of identity theft by means of the internet every year.

Some tactics which are used to gain your personal sensitive information by cybercriminals are:

• Phishing
• Malicious software
• Pharming
• Weak passwords
• Unsecure websites

You should always be careful while installing any new software from the internet and do not use the same password on multiple websites.

3. Internet Piracy

Distributing or selling someone else’s contents over the internet without the proper consent of the original owner of the content is called piracy.

According to the LifeWire, Internet piracy is the use of the internet to illegally copy the content, infringing on the copyright of the content owner.

To make you understand better, let me provide you with a great example of online piracy:

Movies.

Yes, within a week of the release, most of the movies are copied and uploaded on the Torrent websites where anyone can download illegally. This way the original creators of the movie face loss in their businesses.

4. Hacking

On 24th November 2014, a hacker group named “Guardians of Peace” hacked the Sony Pictures film studio server and took more than 100 terabytes of data from the company. They even copied an unreleased upcoming movie called “The Interview” and made available for free on the internet. [Report]

Data safety has become one of the major concerns today. If you do not maintain the proper security majors for all your online and electronic form of data then it can be hacked and your online presence can be compromised.

You must follow some standard procedures to avoid getting your data hacked or compromised.

5. Wrong or Outdated Information

The old or outdated information stays forever and is not deleted from the internet and they are called as the internet garbage.

A quick example:

Your college is organising a cultural fest published information everywhere on the internet about the fest this year. And, what will happen to that information in the coming years?

Nothing… it will just stay there forever and cause hindrance while searching for updated information.

Wrapping it up

No… no.

Don’t think that these are the only misuses of the internet nowadays but there is a lot that might be impossible to mention them all. These are the top 5 misuses of the internet that we should fix quickly.

That’s it.

If you have got a related query, feel free to let me know by dropping a quick comment right now.

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