Personal Privacy Advisors

Cybercrime has existed ever since the first personal computers began to be networked and connected to telephone lines, modems, and the ARPANET (the early version of the Internet). In 1988, the first malicious software program, which was later known as a worm, was released onto the Internet. It exploited vulnerabilities in network server programs and caused thousands of connected computers to fail. Computer viruses and other computer- and Internet-related illegal activity became more prevalent in the early 2000s with the creation of social media sites such as MySpace and Facebook, the increasing power of computing technology and wider availability of inexpensive computing devices, faster Internet connection speeds, and the growing popularity of the Internet and technology on the whole.

Today, cybercrime is a major issue. In 2023, there were 880,418 complaints of suspected Internet crime, with reported losses of more than $12.5 billion, according to the FBI’s Internet Crime Report 2023. (This was a nearly 10 percent increase in complaints received, and a 22 percent increase in losses suffered, compared to 2022.) The top crime types reported were phishing/vishing/smishing/pharming, personal data breach, non-payment/non-delivery, and extortion.

As a result of the increasing occurrences of cybercrime, people have sought out experts known as personal privacy advisors, who can provide them with advice on data security and digital privacy issues and help them identify and fix any digital security issues on their computers, tablets, phones, and social media accounts.