By RARZACK OLAEGBE
If you are a Real Madrid fan, you are on your own.
Arsenal defeated Real Madrid on tactics. During the quarterfinal stage of the Champions League, Arsenal won via effective tactics in 2025. A good tactic can win a football match. A bad one can lose it. In football, tactics involve the planning and execution of actions to gain an advantage over an opponent. Effective strategies revolve around team formation, style of play, and individual actions. For instance, Arsenal beat Real Madrid because Mikel Arteta, Arsenal’s manager, deployed better tactics. He relied on positioning. Pressing. Set pieces. Individual strength.
On the one hand
The cyber thieves, too, have shifted their tactics. The Kaspersky report has shown that thieves relied on attacking banking credentials by sending unwanted software updates. The report informed that more than 33.3 million attacks occurred in 2024 globally. The targets are smartphone users.
On the other hand
The report stated that Android smartphones suffered the most, with 420,000 attacks in 2023 and 1,242,000 in 2024. The thieves can steal your online credentials. The mobile malware threat landscape in 2024 report came out at Mobile World Congress 2025 in Barcelona recently. To catch the unaware smartphone users, the cyber thieves trick victims into downloading unwanted software by spreading links via short message service or messaging apps. Malicious attachments in messengers and by directing users to cruel webpages.
In the long term
In 2024, Fakemoney – a group of fake apps that promote fake investments and payouts – was the most active threat. Another major concern was modified versions of WhatsApp. This contained unwanted software that can download and execute additional malicious or adware modules. For example, it can display advertisements. Or perform other unwanted actions on your Android smartphone. This fake WhatsApp platform is a cloud-based generic threat.
A friend who is a techie suffered a cyberattack this week. Her WhatsApp platform was hacked. The hackers stole her identity. Her banking credentials vanished. Her work documents disappeared. She contacted Meta, owner of the WhatsApp platform. The matter would be resolved. The hackers have done the damage. The road to recovery for my friend will be long and torturous for her. How did she get into the mess?
The cyber thieves sent her a message. They made the fraudulent message look trustworthy. They asked her to verify her two-factor authentication. She obeyed. That was the last time she gained access to her WhatsApp platform. Make that one instance.
Here is another instance. The cyber thieves exploit trending news and hype topics. They create a sense of urgency. They lower your guard. In 2024, for instance, cybercriminals launched an average of 2.8 million unwanted software attacks on mobile devices every month. The thieves have gone into overdrive. They have shifted their tactics. They are desperate to capture as many unsuspecting, innocent Android smartphone users as possible. Beware.
Why do these matter?
“Scammers have started to scale down their efforts to create unique malware packages. They focus on distributing the same files to as many victims as possible. It is important to be cyber-literate. Educate your loved ones. No one is completely safe from well-crafted scams and psychological tricks designed to steal banking data,” Anton Kivva, a security expert at Kaspersky, said.
In the short term
What are your tactics against the cyber thieves? If you are a Real Madrid fan, you are on your own.
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