Cyber Security: Your Business May Be Under Attack
With the cost of cybercrimes reaching as much as $2.2 trillion a year, it’s clear that we are in a pitched battle when it comes to protecting our data against cybercriminals. And before you write yourself off as a target unworthy of a hacker’s attention, the statistics paint a very different picture.
We tend to think of cybercrime in terms of big breaches that are splashed across the media. However, it’s not these big breaches that actually make the most money for criminals.
Research suggests that the average cost of ransomware attacks is around $679. This, admittedly, seems quite low. But if you think about it, keeping the ransoms low makes good financial sense for the criminals.
If their demands were too high, people would be more likely to write off the infected computer as a lost cause and replace it with a new machine. By keeping the ransom affordable, it’s easier for the person just to pay it to regain access.
That doesn’t mean that it’s not profitable for the hacker, though. In the first quarter of 2016 only, criminals earned $209 million from these kinds of attacks. It’s estimated that the average ransomware attacker will earn around $90,000 per annum, which is nothing to sniff at, especially since there is very little work involved here.
We’ve gotten to a point where companies can now take out insurance to cover them in the event of a cyber attack.
What is a Business’s Highest Area of Risk?
When it comes to cybersecurity, your staff pose the highest risk for any organization, whether through plain carelessness, design, or malice.
Careless Employees
If your employees are careless with security aspects, you are heading for trouble. This is where regular security training will pay dividends.
Few people realize how simple it is for an experienced hacker to glean enough information about a person online and make an educated guess about the passwords she may be using.
Also, 70% of people use the same passwords on social media as they do for their corporate logins. And while your company’s servers might be secure, social media is certainly not.
Employees need to be educated about choosing a good password, keeping it safe, and how to recognize a potential threat or suspicious request.
Employees With a Design to Make Extra Money
Criminal syndicates will often look for a way to get someone on the inside. This might mean planting someone in the organization if it is large enough, but it can also mean turning someone who is already working there.
As a result, employees’ actions on the computer system should be monitored to ensure that they’re not accessing systems they shouldn’t.
Malicious Employees
These are more difficult, because you may not know that they have a grudge against the company straight away. It’s good practice to revoke access to the systems as soon as an employee leaves.
Overall, the key to guarding your data against criminals is always to be mindful of security and ensuring that it is well-maintained.
Infographic URL: https://techjury.net/
The size of the breach
Who was behind the attack?
Is Equifax the biggest data breach recorded?
Google has penetrated every sphere of people’s online activity. Just a few services that are the most wide-spread:
With all the advantages global information can give you it would be unwise to think Facebook does not take advantage of the colossal amount of information it has access to.
I am seeing now that most of the UK and many other European Internet service providers (ISPs) are blocking this as well as many other websites from being viewed.
