Is Your Data Really Safe Online?

📆This Week’s Topic

This week, we’ll be talking about online security. Cyber scams and frauds are common, AI can detect weak spots in software, and now there are cyber attacks happening to platforms such as Canvas. Whatever you’re doing online, there are threats. We’ll go over what’s happening, and how it’ll affect you.

💳 Cause & Effect

As more and more of our daily life becomes digitally oriented, i.e online shopping, virtual school, online communication and digital transactions, the risk involved with those interactions grows. Hacks and cyber attacks have become more complex, and the damages, be it data breaches or financial loss, have grown. The total expected cost of damages caused by cyber attacks in 2027 is around 10 Trillion USD, according to Sentinel One. And on a smaller scale, damages caused by fraud regarding cryptocurrency ATM’s was 247 Million USD in 2025.

📊 Statistics

One example of such fraud involving ATMs was committed using a fake dating personality that asked the victim, Ms. Mary Handleland. This instance, where Ms. Handleland deposited over $90,000 USD, brought scrutiny on these crypto ATMs, which have become a common tool for scammers. The ATMs function by allowing you to deposit money into the ATM, and converting it into cryptocurrency, which is sent to your account, which is similar to a digital mailbox. While there are some groups that specialize in retrieving digital currencies aiding law enforcement, most of the lost money is never recovered.

🔚 Outcome

While Kiosks are an easy way to buy or move cryptocurrencies, they are seen as a target by criminals to take funds from people. However, measures are being taken to prevent the fraud, or the amount of money lost to a fraudster. Legislation has been passed in California to limit the amount of cryptocurrency that you can buy or move in a day. However, two companies that maintain kiosks Bitcoin Depot and Byte Federal, reported that scam of fraud transactions made up less than two percent of total transactions. And owners of convienience stores, where the kiosks are located, have taken up labeling the physical ATMs with warnings about the risks of scam or fraud.

⏳ Final Summary

In summary, these scams and data breaches have had huge effects on everyone and especially their wallet. The Canvas hack affected so many schools that use it for their academics and caused the schools to have to pay up in order to get a safe learning platform back. Also, scams with consumers are going up drastically as well. For example, on of the really common recent scams is phishing where you get an email about something with a link that get your personal information.

🙏Thank You & Important Information

As always, thank you for reading this week’s edition of Friday Finance. Consider subscribing if you enjoy these articles, and we’ll see you in two weeks.

Best,

Grayson Stein and Jacob Gans

Friday Finance