What is Cybercrime and How Can it Affect Your Business?
Cybercrime occurs when someone intentionally uses a computer network to commit a criminal act. It has the potential to cause severe harm, ranging from financial losses and reputational damage to national security threats and, in extreme cases, loss of life. It is important that businesses of all sizes take the threat of Cyber crime seriously and put in place best practices to prevent these attacks from occurring. LoughTec helps hundreds of companies across the UK & Ireland with Cyber Security Training, Cyber Essentials Accreditation and IT Support.
Cyberattacks target businesses of all sizes and industries, from individual consumers to large multinational corporations. These attacks can steal money from bank accounts, create false identities and access protected information such as medical records, credit card details and intellectual property.
These attacks are highly profitable for criminals and can wreak havoc on society in the form of lost time, services, opportunity and reputation. They also threaten our economic stability. If cyberattacks were measured as a country, they would surpass the GDP of Japan and be larger than that of the United States, according to a recent Cybersecurity Ventures report.
The most common type of cyberattack is ransomware, which encrypts critical data and renders it unusable until a fee — usually in the form of bitcoins — is paid. The FBI is especially concerned about ransomware targeting healthcare providers, hospitals and 911/first responders, where the physical safety of Americans could be at risk. Cybercriminals are selling malware, hacking tools and cyberattack services on the dark web to facilitate these types of attacks.