When the Colonial Pipeline fell victim to a ransomware attack, people in the United States were shocked to find that a single episode of cybercrime could result in widespread delays, gas shortages and soaring prices at the pump. But disruptive ransomware attacks like this are far from rare; in fact, they are becoming more common. Cybercrime is on the rise and our cybersecurity infrastructure urgently needs to keep up.
A quick look at last year’s data confirms that cybercrime is a growing threat. Identity theft has doubled in 2020 compared to 2019. Other major forms of cybercrime increased even more during the pandemic. According to a recent study by cybersecurity firm Deep Instinct, malware usage increased 358 percent in 2020 while ransomware attacks increased 435 percent.
Yet even amid this massive surge in cybercrime, companies are not doing enough to protect their cybersecurity. A McAfee survey found that 56 percent of organizations do not have a cybersecurity plan in place to prevent or respond to a cybercrime incident. However, being unprepared can be disastrous; Some experts estimate that the global cost of cybercrime will exceed $ 10.5 trillion a year by 2025.
Businesses and organizations, both small and large, must make cybersecurity their top priority in 2021 and beyond. Business leaders need to understand the risks they are facing and familiarize themselves with the best cybersecurity solutions available. Cyber criminals don’t wait for you to protect yourself; You have either gotten ahead of cybercrime now or you risk catastrophe later.
A big part of the problem is that too many business leaders fail to realize the level of their exposure to cybercrime. In our digital economy, data is the most valuable asset. Every digital platform, app, network, device and service is powered by huge amounts of data. And much of this data is extremely sensitive; All it takes is a weak password, a set of stolen employee credentials, or a compromised device for cyber criminals to take action.
Cyber criminals and hackers are hungry for your sensitive information and will do almost anything to get it. Any of your digital services or devices is a potential point of attack. A wide variety of tools are available to cybercriminals, from malware and ransomware to keyloggers and phishing emails. You can bet that every point of digital disclosure in your company’s cyber infrastructure will be identified and exploited by these thieves and hackers.
With such an active and multi-faceted cybercrime threat environment, organizations that do not take proactive steps to protect every aspect of their business will quickly be left behind. 78 percent of senior IT and IT security officers say they don’t trust their company’s cybersecurity protocols, partly because the attack surfaces have multiplied so quickly that many companies simply can’t keep up with everything they need to protect.
The components of a laptop are shown.
TOLGA AKMEN / AFP via Getty Images
To avoid this being another statistic on cybercrime, company managers should realistically assess their digital threat. For today’s digital business, it is no longer a question of whether you will be hacked, but simply a question of when. Organizations cannot rely on a reactive approach to cybercrime; You need to start implementing the cybersecurity changes that provide proactive, ongoing, and holistic protection against the most common and likely forms of cybercrime.
For most organizations, this means addressing their biggest cybersecurity vulnerability: their employees.
The most common cybercrimes involve a tactic called “social engineering”. Cyber criminals often don’t have to hack your digital systems directly; Instead, they will manipulate, exploit and trick your employees into giving them the information they need.
Social engineering regularly takes the form of spear phishing attacks, in which a cybercriminal impersonates a supervisor, administrator, or other person of authority and tries to trick employees into revealing confidential login information or clicking on email links that contain malicious information Contain software such as malware or ransomware.
Cisco estimates that 95 percent of cybersecurity breaches in corporate networks and systems are caused by spear phishing attacks. The fact is, social engineering and phishing attacks work a lot more often than you might think. Forty-three percent of employees say they made a mistake at work that likely put their employer’s cybersecurity at risk. Several major cybercrime incidents have been the result of simple human error; The Equifax and Capital One networks were hacked due to employee error.
For all of these reasons, one of the main ways organizations can improve their cybersecurity is by educating and empowering their employees to better identify cyber threats while taking steps to ensure that their employees are adequately protected. Employee training and clear cybersecurity guidelines can be a good place to start. But building strategic partnerships with reputable cybersecurity firms, delivering enhanced cybersecurity benefits to employees, and securing some of the systems most used by employees can all help keep your business safe.
Cybercrime is not going to go away anytime soon, and nobody can afford to skimp on their cybersecurity protection. Although the cybercrime threat landscape is complex, providing the best cybersecurity training and protection to your workforce is the best place to start.
Tom Kelly is the President and CEO of IDX, a Portland, Oregon-based provider of privacy and privacy services such as IDX Privacy. He is a Silicon Valley serial entrepreneur and an expert in cybersecurity technologies.
The views expressed in this article are one’s own.
source https://collegeeducationnewsllc.com/cybercrime-never-sleeps-opinion/
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