Cybercrime – What Every Business Needs to Know

Cybercrime costs the Australian economy over $1 billion annually. Worldwide it is estimated that Cyber Crime is a $450 Billion dollar industry, all black market.

The common goal for Cyber Crime is money, Disruption is not the focus, that is a side effect and the catalyst for generating revenue for the cyber criminals.

The costs associated with cyber-attacks and data breaches are continually rising. We all know that data breaches and cyber-attacks can cause a vital disruption to business processes. The impact of lost data or unforeseen downtime can be catastrophic and disastrous, resulting in lost profits, expenses, reputation and of course, business standing and position.

We only hear about the major crimes and those reported in the media, but all day everyday business are being targeted – emails, compromised web sites, direct attacks and internal data leaks are happening every day to business everywhere.

DROPBOX
Dropbox data stolen in 2012, containing encrypted passwords and information of about two-thirds of cloud’s clients, has been leaked. Popular cloud storage firm Dropbox has been hacked, with over 68m users’ email addresses and passwords leaking on to the internet.  At that time, Dropbox reported that a huge collection of user’s email addresses had been stolen. It did not report that passwords had been stolen as well. Dropbox sent out notifications to all users who had not changed their passwords since 2012 and now, leading security experts recommend the use of a password manager to secure the scores of unique and complex passwords needed to properly secure the various login details needed for daily life. But picking the right password manager is just as crucial.

AUSSIE FARMERS DIRECT
Just last year, groceries delivery business Aussie Farmers Direct found out that they had fallen victim to an attack wherein personal details of more than 5000 of its consumers were posted online. The company was contacted in the days leading up to the attack in a blackmail attempt. No credit card nor banking details were leaked, but names, phone numbers, email addresses and physical addresses were.

CONFICKER
One of the largest and most resolute internet worms of all time was discovered in 2008 and is still infecting more than a million computers every year as of this writing. Conficker is an unbelievably smart piece of software that continually updates itself by making connections to an ever-growing system of websites. Experts say that it could cause unimaginable mayhem on just about any target. Even more scary, tech security experts still don’t have a clue who is behind it, other than to say that whoever they are, they’re extremely gifted programmers.

KMART
On October 1, 2015, Kmart revealed a discovery that customer data had been stolen by external attackers.
No payment details were taken, but customer names, email addresses, physical addresses, phone numbers and product purchase details were stolen in the attack.

The ever changing world of how we do business and changes in technology means that the risks and threats of cybercrime and data loss are high. All businesses need to assess their exposure and vulnerability to cyber-attacks and the financial and reputational damage or loss that it may cause. The unfortunate reality is that it may be inevitable. It happened to the above organisations, it affected their businesses, and it caused a lot of inconveniences. Could it happen to yours?

What effect will a cyber-attack have on your business? When did you last review company resistance against hacks and cybercrime? For more information on how you can prevent these attacks, call Wyntec today at 1300 655 523. We will be more than happy to assist you with your IT needs. You may also send us an email at [email protected].

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