Introduction Less than two decades ago, the prospect of losing money in a digital heist might have seemed preposterous. Stories of hackers committing outrageous crimes for good and evil were the material of pulp science fiction novels and films, rather than a foreseeable future. However, the world of 2017 in some ways is much stranger than fiction imagined decades ago. The prevalence of the internet allowed millions of people to gain instant access to knowledge, entertainment, and methods of communication. Unfortunately, the relatively unregulated space of the internet has claimed a great number of victims over the years, and this trend will likely continue. The danger comes from a variety of angles, and its consequences may be tragic for the victims. This paper will provide an overview of some of the most common and most dangerous aspects of life in the digital age. Social Networks Perhaps one of the most common angles of attacks online is focused on social networks. There are a number of reasons for this choice. The first is that they allow the hacker to gain private and semi-private information about the person, which could be used for further identity theft. The second is that social networks often have a way of contacting other people, either through public or private messages. This contact is used to fool the friends and family of the victim into visiting links or downloading files infected with Trojan viruses. The hacker in this scenario impersonates the victim and sends out provocative messages that point the viewer to an infected webpage. Lastly, the hacker may use the page as a so-called “zombie” user (Fire, Goldschmidt & Elovici 2014). It would allow them to boost numbers of friends or followers of pages to give them credibility. This type of attack is often done through the practice of phishing, which involves the victim inputting their login information into a copy of the site’s login page. After gaining access to the social network account of the victim, the hacker is likely to send out private messages to everyone with ties to the victim. The messages often contain links to either the previously mentioned infected sites, or to other phishing pages. People unfamiliar with such tactics are likely to be fooled by the false page, which puts casual computer users at risk. Private Information While the primary way of private information loss is tied to social networks, there are other vectors that need consideration. Currently, a large portion of the world’s population is in possession of a smartphone. These devices have become ubiquitous in modern society. They have replaced cameras, GPS, music players, and portable consoles for the majority of casual users. Unfortunately, not all of them provide sufficient protection to their users (Jones, Chin & Aiken 2014). Even when they do, the user may not be aware of best practices when using the phone. Phones can be stolen and hacked directly, or accessed indirectly, through malicious programs and applications. Either way, very personal information is on the line. People may keep personal photos of friends and loved ones that they would not want to share with the world, as well as contacts, history of messages, banking details, and much more. This is one of the reasons why it is important to be careful when installing any software that asks for access to more areas of the device than its functionality may suggest. In addition, a person may use passwords to protect individual folders on the phone. However, su