You’re starting to hear the term cyber crime everywhere nowadays, on the news and the radio. Just this morning I saw a whole commercial about it on Hulu during my morning workout. We live in a cyber world and the way of fighting is just evolving. Instead of guns and trenches we now have computers and hackers. With the creation of ways to protect your personal life business such as cyber crime units or cyber liability for your business, the vast majority have been slow to learn how to protect themselves.
In a recent study done by Cisco Systems, out of $115,000 devices they found that 92% had a weakness in security. On average, most companies and individuals will not discover the attack until 100 or more days have passed. The people doing these are attacks are just like anybody else. They look like your neighbors, friends, and classmates. These criminals have figured out that there is big money to be made by taking advantage of the internet—just ask the group that hacked Sony and Target. Most cyber crimes are committed by individuals or small groups. However, there are few large organized crime groups and communities. Below are a few of the most common attacks:
- Botnet – a network of software robots that automatically release malware.
- Fast Flux – moving data quickly among the computers in a botnet in order to make it difficult to trace the source of malware or phishing websites
- Zombie Computer – a computer that has been taken over and is used to launch cyber attacks or to become part of a botnet
- Social Engineering – uses manipulation to trick people into revealing their personal information. Phishing falls into this category. This one is the most common we see day to day.
- Denial-of-Service attacks – inundating a network with traffic in order to make it unavailable.
- Skimmers – devices that steal credit card information when the card is swiped through them. This can happen in stores or restaurants when the card is out of the owner’s view, and frequently the credit card information is then sold online through a criminal community.
The continuing question is always how does one combat this? Updating security measures on personal computers and devices is the first step. Make sure your passwords aren’t weak and don’t share them. Be wary when connecting to public Wi-Fi and don’t fall for pop ups. If you’re a business, purchase cyber liability insurance and make sure you’re always up to date.
If you have questions regarding your insurance, ECI is always here.
