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2015 was responsible for 22% of those, with the average cost to the user at £1300.
Of those who reported cybercrime, shockingly nearly half said they had not taken additional precautions while on the internet, such as changing passwords.The majority of cyber-related crime was the theft of financial data, such as credit card details or online banking details. In one estimate, 70% of users who had their financial details stolen and lost money by it were not able to claim any of the money back as the onus of the security had been shifted to the user.
With various well known big companies hitting the headlines recently as being the victims to cybercrime, It’s often thought that smaller companies and home users are not going to be the target of such activity, or that if they are the victim, there’s not much they can do to prevent it (after all, if the likes of TalkTalk, Sony and Ashley Madison can’t prevent them, what chance do you have)
But those are common misconceptions. everyone online is a target, and even if you are not online yourself, there will be bits of data about you online somewhere.
While most of the high-profile cyber attacks are likely targeted directly at the victim, in cases of SME’s it’s usually as a result of try and see tactics. In this case, compromised computers are used to scan vast numbers of IP addresses and test each one systematically for vulnerabilities, poking to see if there are any exploitable cracks in the company armor (or even if there is any defence at all) and reporting back to their command and control servers when IP’s of interest are found.
There are also a number of instances with SME’s where insider information is used, maybe a disgruntled employee or an unscrupulous competitor.
In most cases, the goal of the intruder is financial gain, either through plundering your client financial information, of the company accounts, or infecting your data servers with ransomware, encrypting all your data until you pay up, or by disrupting the network sufficiently to prevent it being of any use to the company, effectively causing it to cease trading.
If the attack was by a script kiddy, it may just be with a view to causing embarrassment to the company, such as defacing your public facing website, or causing mayhem on the network and data servers. Just a game to them, but it could spell disaster for your company.
Home user attacks fall mostly into three types; targeted by someone you know, blanket sweeping and phishing scams.
Phishing scams have been about for a long time now, and while not that complicated, they have moved to keep up with the trends on the internet, and they are a bit harder to spot. Most of the email based scams are well documented, but they still work and they are still being used a lot. A more modern take on them is by using social media.
So next time you re-post some survey or emotive picture on Facebook, or retweet a trending post on twitter, have a mind on what that content really is. Facebook is particularly full of images and links that are targeted towards certain groups of people, it may be an emotive meme or a political statement supposedly made by one group of people, but in reality put there by some other less well-meaning group in order to harvest information. (See our post on Facebook Security)
The trend of online shopping in the UK is racing ahead of the rest of Europe, but don’t be too click-happy when it comes to handing over your details. Make sure you know who you are buying from. Is the website secured with a genuine security certificate? is there a UK based land-line number (and not just a non-geographic 0800 number) that you can call, and does it actually ring out! does the website give a contact address where they are trading from. Take a few simple steps to ensure you know who you are giving your card details to.
Contact us to safeguard your data today.
The ONS Report on cybercrime statistics can be found here : http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/rel/crime-stats/crime-statistics/year-ending-june-2015/index.html
tinsleyNET LTD | IT Services Consultants
Offering IT Services to businesses and home users across the UK
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