Everything we do nowadays is done on the internet or electronically.  Most of the world’s money isn’t even real.  It’s mostly just numbers in the banks computers.  You can move all the money in your bank account from sitting at home on your computer.  We all think that, just because we have the new antivirus software, that we will all be safe from the dangers of the internet.  This however, is not true.  There are people who have learned how to bypass even the hardest of all firewalls

Presidents constantly have millions of people watching and knowing everything they do.  Now imagine all of their personal information being stolen from them and posted to the internet for everyone to see. By running for office, they expose themselves to this ongoing threat.  The 2016 presidential candidates are gathering a lot of attention from groups like Anonymous, who have the technical ability to shut down a countries government.  Recently, Anonymous shut down the Iceland government and many of their whaling companies, because they said “Whales do not have a voice, so we will be a voice for them.”

Anonymous recently claimed to have leaked Donald Trump’s social security number. On April 1, Anonymous promised to launch a hacking campaign against Trump.  For the following days after the claim, some of  Trump’s related websites experienced momentary outages.  Journalists who cover Anonymous have said that the group’s operations have increased in the past two  years, more of the activity has been in political affairs.  Anonymous has claimed that they do not take sides in politics, they just want to expose the truth and  the unlawful things that people with power do in secret.  The group however has shown to target trump more than any other candidate saying that all hacktivists should join the “fight” against Trump.

Presidential candidates now rely mostly on digital advertising, social media, and voter databases to reach out to voters.  The possibility of a candidate’s twitter account being hacked a day before a primary is highly likely and is easier than many people may think.  Imagine a hacker posting a tweet, pretending to be a candidate, saying that they are pulling out of the race. Also the hacker could get access to the candidate’s email and they could steal information on how the candidate wants to strategically win the election.

Hacktivists aren’t just targeting the presidential candidates.  These groups can and have targeted governments, large corporations, small businesses, and even a specific people.  Hackers are able to take personal info like bank accounts, social security numbers or just mess with your computers.  Very few groups are able to take personal information and are very unlikely to target you.  They usually target celebrities and political figures.  You should be safe as long as you stray away from unknown or suspicious websites and don’t answer emails from a strange person or business.  These are ways for hackers to get into your computer and begin the process of hacking your computer.