Wannacry, Petya and ZCryptor have all caused financial and reputational damage to organisations across the globe in recent months, highlighting the unprecedented rise of cybercrime.

As cyber criminals get more advanced organisations are going to be exposed to more and more cyber security threats.

What is cyber crime?

Cybercrime comes in many forms and advances are being made all the time, criminals are either looking to cause disruption to organisations by bringing down IT systems, or for financial gain.

>See also: Cyber crime and the banking sector

The common forms of cybercrime are considered as:

Phishing: bogus emails that may look like they come from a trusted source asking for security information and personal details.

File hijacker: where criminals hijack files and hold them to ransom also known as Ransomware.
Keylogging: where criminals record what you type on your keyboard and steal passwords and personal information.

Screenshot manager: allows criminals to take screenshots of your computer screen.

Ad clicker: criminals will create online adverts that direct a victim’s computer to click a specific link.

Hacking: gaining access to a network to cause damage or to steal data.

Distributed denial of service (DDOS) attacks: rendering a network or website unusable with a view to disrupt businesses.

Statistics around cybercrime

The information and data available on Cyber Crime is changing all the time due to the increase in criminal activity.

>See also: Cyber crime: an unprecedented threat to society?

Stats below as of June 2017

• The global cost of Cyber Crime is estimated to reach $2 trillion by 2019, a threefold increase from the 2015 estimate of $500 billion.

• The cost per record stolen averages $158.

• Last year there were 38% more cyber security incidents than the previous year.

• 48% of data security breaches are caused by acts of malicious intent, human error or system failure account for the rest.

• A staggering 50% of small and midsized organisations reported suffering at least one cyber-attack in the last 12 months.

• Global spending to combat cybercrime will top $80 billion this year.

• Spending on cyber insurance has increased with many businesses investing in insurance against cybercrime.

• 30% of Phishing emails are opened due to a lack of employee education.

What are the consequences of a cyber attack?

Reputational: many businesses do not consider the reputational damage an attack could have on their business, especially if data is stolen.

Financial: even if you do not pay cyber criminals you may well experience business down time which will lead to financial loss.

Downtime: if you fall victim to a cyber attack you are more than likely to experience business down time. Could your business operate without data, documents or email?

>See also: The fight against cyber crime requires innovative defence

Legal: There may be legal implications, if you do not have the correct security and data protection regulations in place you may be liable.

These are just a few of the consequences but there are many, many more. A multi-layered approach to your cyber security is key, from data protection to spam filters, although you can never be 100% protected against these ever-changing threats you can be prepared by educating your teams, implementing a multi-layered security approach and ensuring you are always on the lookout for suspicious activity.

Sourced by Jessica Symondson, marketing manager at Complete I.T.

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