Pauline E. Ranger $7.35 million. This is the average cost for a data breach. Indeed, Cybersecurity isn’t glamorous. In today’s digital era, Cybersecurity is unquestionably important for both large corporations and startups. Hacks are also becoming more common.
You can protect yourself and your business by becoming aware of these hidden threats and taking concrete steps to safeguard yourself.
What is a Cybercrime?
A cybercrime can be defined as a crime that involves some computer or cyber element. Individuals or groups with different motives can commit it. Cyber threats are asymmetrical risks in that small groups can cause large amounts of harm.
Cybercriminals are classified into several categories.
Groups of organized criminals with a financial motive: The majority of these groups are located primarily in Eastern Europe
National-state actors: People who work directly or indirectly on behalf of their government in order to steal sensitive data and disrupt enemy capabilities. They are the most sophisticated cyber-attackers, with 30 percent of them coming from China.
Hacktivists or activist groups: Do not steal money. They are out to promote religion, politics, or causes, to affect reputations or impact clients.
Insiders: These employees are “disillusioned or blackmailed , or over-helpful. “They operate from within the company. They may not be cybercriminals on purpose. Some might take a list of contacts or design documents without realizing what harm they could do.
The age for a criminal hacker is 35. 80% of hackers are involved in organized crime. People choose to be cybercriminals.
Cybercrime Tactics
Cybercriminals use both static and dynamic methods in order to commit their crimes. Let’s delve in.
DISTRIBUTED DENIED SERVICE (DDOS).
DDoS attacks are designed to disrupt the service of a network. Attackers flood the network with large amounts of data and traffic until it is overloaded. Traffic flooding the victim comes from a variety of sources, possibly hundreds of thousands. It is used to make it impossible for a single IP to be blocked to stop an attack. It also makes it hard to differentiate legitimate traffic from attack traffic.
Phishing
phishing emails often pose as requests for personal information from trusted third parties. They ask the user to click a link and then enter their data. This usually involves psychology, such as invoking fear or urgency to trick unsuspecting people into giving out confidential information.
A couple of factors are concerning. The first is that phishing emails are becoming more sophisticated, and they often look like legitimate requests for data. Cybercriminals are now able to access phishing technologies, such as on-demand services and kits, by licensing. Dark web services allow cybercriminals to refine their skills and campaigns. Phishing emails are six times more likely to get clicked than marketing emails sent by regular consumers.
MALWARE
Malware is short for “malware,” and it’s designed to damage or gain access to a computer. The term malware is used to describe a variety of cyber threats, including viruses, worms, and Trojans. Malware is usually introduced into a computer system via email attachments or software downloads.
INTERNAL PRIVILEGE MISUSE
While malicious insiders who leak confidential information to WikiLeaks get all the attention, a common scenario involves an opportunistic but average employee or end user secretly taking personal data in the hope of cashing out later on (60%). Employees can be a bit too curious at times and snoop around (17%). Financial crimes such as tax fraud and identity theft target personal information (71%), but they can also be gossip.
Physical Card Skimmers
These attacks include physically inserting onto an asset that can read the magnetic stripe information from payment cards (e.g., ATMs, gas stations, POS terminals). This is an easy and quick attack that can yield a high return. It’s a very popular type of action (8%) because it is relatively fast.
Cybersecurity Costs and Consequences
The Wall Street Journal estimated three years ago that cybercrime cost the US $100 billion. Some reports said that the cost of cybercrime in the US was as high as ten times higher. In 2017, the average data breach cost was $7.35m, up from $5.85m in 2014. prices include everything from detection and containment to recovery, business disruptions, revenue losses, and equipment damages. Cyber breaches can cause more than just financial damage. They can also affect intangibles such as the reputation of a business or its customers.
It is interesting to note that companies with high levels of innovation are often the ones who suffer more expensive attacks. An “innovation” can be anything, from a divestiture or acquisition to entering a new geographical market. The cost of cybercrime increased by 20 when a company acquired or divested itself, while the price rose by 18% when launching a new significant application.
Financial services firms can attribute the costs of a security breach to disruptions in business, loss of information, revenue losses, and many other factors.
The Financial Services Industry is to be notified of Cybersecurity.
Unfortunately, financial services are not immune to cybersecurity concerns. According to the Verizon Data Breach Investigations Report, 24% of breaches were caused by financial organizations. The healthcare sector and the public sector followed the top industry. In 2012, this industry ranked third after defense, utilities, and energy. Finance firms have the highest losses of any industry, with an average loss of $16.5 Million in 2013.
DDoS attacks are the most common cyber breach in financial services. As with all DDoS attacks, the financial industry has been the most affected.
Famous Financial Services Hackings
Six major American banks were targeted in 2012 by a group with Middle Eastern connections. These attacks resulted in internet blackouts, delays, and frustration for customers who were unable to access their accounts online or pay their bills.
The hackers used DDoS attacks to overwhelm the banks’ websites, causing them to shut down. The attacks used botnets – networks of infected machines that perform criminal orders. Botnets can also be referred to by the term “zombie computer,” which obeys the commands of a “master botnet.” Unfortunately, they are often rented on black markets or lent out or sold by criminals and governments.
JPMORGAN 2014
Hackers compromised the names, email addresses, phone numbers, and 83,000,000 accounts in the summer of 2014. This was the largest breach of security to have occurred at an American bank. JPMorgan spends $250 million a year on computer security. The 2014 breach wasn’t the result of an elaborate scheme. The 2014 breach was not the result of a sophisticated system. The attack did not use the malware used by hackers in North Korea in their hack of Sony. The problem was basic. The bank didn’t use two-factor authentication. This is an extra layer of security that users can sign in for when they access data or applications. JPMorgan’s Security team failed to upgrade one server with the dual password system. That was all it took.
