Leeward wrote:(1) What can a malicious user do with your information once they've violated your security? (i.e. "Why should I care?") I know there is such a thing as identity theft, but how far can that go?
(2) How easy/possible is it to obtain enough information for malicious use?
(3) How does one reverse such a violation?
(4) Is common sense enough to avoid making yourself a target?
(5) Is it really worth the hassle of having to enable scripts manually to have pages work normally?
(6) Why isn't such security a standard feature that doesn't turn all but the most advanced users into sitting ducks?
Valerion can probably give much better answers but I'll give it a shot anyway.
1) All sorts of things. If they're trying to steal stuff and you ever use internet banking or any account then they could use your money to buy things or empty as much of your account as possible. If you had naked photos of yourself they could steal those and post them online or email them to your boss and co-workers. They could just delete everything on your computer which means you could lose all photos or music or whatever isn't backed up.
2) I think there are tools that are available that make it a lot easier than one might expect.
3) Depends what it is. If they deleted your files you can try recover them. There was a scam where a virus encrypts your files instead and then you have to pay for the unlock code (assuming they will actually know or give it). Recovering from both of those can be very difficult (and expensive) to practically impossible. If it's money you would have to talk to the bank, who could probably reverse it but it will be a lot of effort, just like having your card stolen.
4) It'll make you safer. Just like you're less likely to be mugged walking in a good neighbourhood then dark alleyways in a slum. None of it is a guarantee though.
5) Most pages don't need them. Also if it's a site you use a lot you just put it on a whitelist. Plus blocking ads and all those stupid things can sometimes be quite nice. It probably depends what all you do online.
6) Probably because people are lazy. Every extra bit of security is an extra inconvenience. Compare how easy it is to walk through doors inside your home than when you enter or leave and need to lock or unlock everything. It'll depend for each person where they want to trade off convenience for security. There are pushes to improve security online though.
"If all mankind minus one, were of one opinion, and only one person were of the contrary opinion, mankind would be no more justified in silencing that one person, than he, if he had the power, would be justified in silencing mankind."
~John Stuart Mill~
“Give me the liberty to know, to utter, and to argue freely according to conscience, above all liberties.”
~John Milton~