The growth and evolution of technology and the world of online has made the world a smaller, quicker and more efficient place. Not only can you run a full business online, but you can also conduct almost your entire personal life by simply logging online. But, with this, has sprung up endless and potentially crippling threats to businesses and individuals alike. The accessibility and convenience that people are enjoying from the internet are also the reasons why more and more scammers are prevalent in stealing data today.
Many of the problems, however, lie in the fact that you simply don’t know what is real and what is fake until it is too late. With the rise and spread of fake news, many people simply don’t know when to trust a warning or update about a potential threat. Misinformation can make people more vulnerable to cyberattacks—and they don’t even know that they’re already on the hacker’s radar.
The ease of restrictions on communication has also allowed for email addresses and mobile numbers to become easily accessible to false communication or phishing. Thousands of people a month receive false communication that their accounts have been hacked, or that they have been sent funds to retrieve, opening them up to high levels of fraud and theft. Some people also receive emails that their credit card accounts are closing soon and they’ll have to send a specific amount of money to another bank account so they can continue to use their credit cards.
We took a look at how the world of online is changing and how cybersecurity needs to continuously grow and evolve in order to combat this growing threat.
The Top Cyber Security Risks
Before we get into the statistics, let’s take a look at the different types of cyber threats that organizations and individuals need to be aware of.
Phishing
Phishing is the most common cyber attack and is the use of fraudulent communication to steal valuable information from the victim. Often, targets of phishing are contacted by email by someone who is posing as a legitimate organization or business. The goal of hackers behind phishing is to lure their victims into giving them sensitive data such as passwords and credit cards.
Some of the most common features of phishing emails are:
- Messages that seem too good to be true: Hackers involved in phishing will always use an eye-catching or attention-grabbing subject line or messages to entice victims to give them the information they need.
- Sense of urgency: Hackers understand how people love bargains, which is why they would usually invite their victims to act fast on deals that’ll help them “save money.” Some hackers will even tell you that you only have a few minutes to respond to their emails and say yes to their offer.
- Unusual senders: Phishing emails will usually come from unknown email addresses, so when you receive one, make sure to not open or click it.
Ransomware
Ransomware is what the name sounds like. The software is introduced into a system to block the normal functions and money is demanded to have the software removed. Hackers behind this kind of scheme will request a certain amount of money for you to continue using your computer or access your files again.
Malware
Malware is malicious software that aims to create harmful software that either block the system, corrupts it or steals vital information. This software can easily steal your information and corrupt your files. The longer you let this software in your system, the more damage it can create.
Man-in-the-middle attacks
These are attacks that take place when the hacker inserts themselves into a transaction between two parties. They can make use of entry on either side and record the information being shared. This kind of scheme can be challenging to detect, which is why it’s best if you work with pros from tcgns.com to help you. With their experience and tools, they can easily detect which transactions are legitimate or not.
Denial of service attack
Attacks are carried out by several users and devices to essentially flood the systems, servers or networks with traffic that they cannot handle.
SQL Injection
Hackers will introduce code into a system to force the system to release information it usually wouldn’t, hence compromising its privacy.
The Statistics That Will Make Your Skin Crawl
While technology evolves and becomes smarter and faster, so are the criminals. In fact, cyber criminals are trying to stay ahead of the evolution of technology. Organizations are constantly on alert and putting in place measures to mitigate the risks of a cyber attack, but many states that it is almost impossible to stay ahead.
The Chief Information Officers role in a company is to oversee and plan for any attacks, however, many express frustrations at the fact that they simply do not know where the next attack would be coming from. Key statistics and reports, however, allow professionals to have an insight into what they should be looking out for and what key trends they can protect themselves against.
The healthcare industry is the most at risk of attack
Interestingly, out of all industries, including the finance and banking sectors, healthcare finds itself as the top target of cybercriminals. Vital documents and information are stolen and leaked. The industry was the target of some of the most vicious cyber attacks seen to date during the course of 2018.
Cybercrime will become more profitable than illegal drugs
By 2021, it has been estimated that cybercrime will take a $6 trillion chunk out of the global pocket. It is currently costing almost $4 trillion in damages, however, the number is steadily climbing as criminals become more and savvier.
54% of company breaches are due to employees
This number has risen sharply over the last few years. The cybercrime statistic is also including two different options in the total number. Firstly, there are the employees who unwittingly allow a hack to take place by opening a phishing email or follow an insecure link. Organizations are heightening employee awareness surrounding cybersecurity and providing training education to employees to protect themselves and the company against attacks. The second aspect is that of the employee who conducts the attack themselves.
Organizations lose millions of dollars to in-house company fraud and most of it is done through cyber attacks. The increase of BYOD (bring your own device) has been tipped as one of the biggest threats to organizations worldwide and is not looking like it will be resolved any time soon.
92% of all malware worldwide is delivered by email
Malware, together with phishing is easily spread with the use of emails. Emails are also getting trickier and trickier to spot as criminals have become smarter in creating realistic communication. Spam filters are also becoming easier to overcome as criminals have learned how to circumnavigate the protection.
It takes an average of 191 days for an organization to spot an attack
Each attack costs an average of $5 million to the company.
An attack happens every 39 seconds in the US
61% of companies have admitted that they have been victims of attacks. Worryingly the number of SMEs facing the threats has been on the steady incline. This could be crippling to the company as they do not have the resources to manage cyber attacks.
The Role of a Cyber Security Expert
The above stats should make it blatantly obvious how absolutely necessary it is to have cybersecurity experts in every organization. As they say, prediction and prevention are better than responding to an attack.
There are shockingly low numbers of cyber security experts worldwide to respond to the number of attacks taking place daily. Cybersecurity positions vary in function according to their specialty, field, industry and even company. The following are options of possible positions to combat cybercrime:
- Chief Information Officer
- Chief Technology Officer
- Forensic Investigator
- Chief Cyber Security Officer
- Security Analyst
- Security Engineer
- Security Architect
- Security Administrator
- Security Software Developer
- Cryptographer/Cryptologist
- Cryptanalyst
- Chief Information Security Officer
- Security Consultant/Specialist
Wrapping Up
With the growing rate, as well as the impact of threat on organizations and individuals, has arisen the need for more positions to combat the crime. With so many avenues for the attacks to take place comes the need for cybersecurity jobs to be filled to protect the organization from these attacks.
