In this article, I will explain how hackers can hack your freelancing accounts. Also, I will guide you on how you can protect yourself from hackers if you are a freelancer. On daily basis, there are thousands of people who are joining the World´s top freelancing platforms like Fiverr, Freelancer.com, UpWork e.t.c to build a strong career in their field as a Freelancer. But are they aware of the Cyber Security risks related to their Freelancing accounts? The answer is NO. Because most of them have very little knowledge about cyber threats. Also, they don´t have any idea how easily a hacker can hack their Fiverr, Upwork, or freelancer account.
So in this post, my aim is to aware them of some cybersecurity risks so they can protect their Freelancing account from a Hacker. Let´s dive into the topic and let me explain How a hacker can easily hack your Freelance account. Then I will explain, How you can protect yourself from hackers.
How Hackers Can Hack Your Freelancing Accounts (Fiverr, Upwork, Freelancer)
The most common method used by hackers to hack your freelancing account is exploiting your system with a malicious file. Basically they signup on these top platforms as a client and post a project over there. After the bidding process when you ask them for the project requirements, they send you a malicious file. Now this malicious file could be anything like a PDF file, an executable file, a Word file, an excel spreadsheet, etc.
So what they basically do is, they can attach a Trojan (Virus) with that file. Now, as you open that file the virus executes itself and give them shell access to your computer. Now as they have shell access to your computer, they can do various things like stealing your data, cookies, and much more things. Another scary thing is your antivirus or firewalls might not be able to detect their payload, because of its uniqueness. All the things they do will be in the background and you will not have any idea what actually going on behind the scenes.
Some of you might have knowledge about it if you have good understandings of Cyber Security or related fields like programming and development. But there so many non-technical freelancing niches. Which might not have that much knowledge about this cybersecurity stuff. These niches include content writers, Digital Marketers, SEO Analysts, and sometimes even Graphics Designer and Video Editors.
How to Protect Your Freelancing Accounts From Hackers (Fiverr, Upwork, Freelancer)
Now, as all of you have good exposure to how a hacker can hack your freelancing accounts? Here are some tips for every freelancer How they can protect themselves from Hacker.
1 – Keep Your Systems Updated
The most important thing is to keep your Computers/Laptops always updated. Every time when a hacker made a new virus or exploits our outdated Antivirus might not have a signature for that virus or exploit. So it is necessary to keep systems always updated with the latest security patches.
2 – Avoid File Sharing via Untrusted Source
Because of these rising Cyber threats, top freelancing platforms like Fiverr, Upwork, and Freelancer have already had their build-in security systems to protect their users. These platforms can automatically detect such types of malicious files which prevent hackers to comprise your accounts. Although now hackers will try to share those malicious files via some alternative resource and as you download it from there it will exploit your system. So never communicate with the client outside of the platform to keep your account safe and secure.
3 – Do not Use Cracked Software
One of the biggest threats that leads your account to be hacked is using crack software. Most of the time freelancers try to use some premium tools for free. For that, they install a crack for that particular software. However, those cracks are developed by some unknown developers and most of them are viruses themselves. Because you don’t know what code it will execute while giving you access to premium software for free. Keep in mind nothing is free in this world, so always try to avoid cracked software, because they can damage you more than the software’s cost. I will recommend to you to find alternatives if you can’t afford premium software.
4 – Using a Separate Computer/Laptop to Open Files
A better approach to be safe from malicious files is to use a separate computer to open files shared by the clients. Now if you don’t have another laptop or computer, you can create virtual machines. By creating virtual machines you will be able to install a separate OS (Windows, Linux, etc.) inside your existing computer. You can use tools like VMWare, or VirtualBox to create virtual machines.
Now I assume that you have two separate computers, either physical or virtual. It is always better to use the virtual pc for opening the shared files so that your main computer will not be exposed to hackers. So now, if you open the malicious file hacker will only get shell access to that other computer and your main computer will be safe.
5 – Go through Your Client Profile
As I mentioned earlier, top freelancing platforms already have strong built-in security systems. So if they found such type of malicious users on their platform, they ban them from the platform. But it will be better to be a little extra careful while taking a project from the client. It would be better to always look at the client’s profile and check for some factors like reviews on his profile, and also make sure the client has already completed some projects in past. If he is a new client with zero reviews or zero projects in past, then you need to be extra careful. However, I am not asking you not to work with new client’s but I am just advising you to be a little extra careful while working with new clients.
Conclusion
Conclusion to this post is that always take safety measures. Hackers can hack your freelancing accounts only if you allow them to do so. So you can protect yourself from hackers by keeping your system and yourself updated with the latest cyber threats. You must keep your Operating System and Softwares updated to protect your computer. Also, you need to keep yourself aware of the latest Cyber updates, news, and threats to give a boost to your computer security. Also, you need to take care of the person you going to work with, keep an eye on his profile. A cracked version of the software can also be dangerous, you should avoid them. By applying these tips you can protect your freelancing accounts, as well as any other account from hackers.
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