As the world reels from the impact of the coronavirus pandemic, hackers and scammers are thriving on fears surrounding the virus, creating a new threat for businesses and individuals. Scams and email phishing schemes surrounding the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic have multiplied in recent weeks.
Cybercrime is one of the fastest growing “industries” today, resulting in staggering costs to businesses worldwide. Find out just how much it’s costing businesses in our updated infographic.
In late 2019, CNBC.com reported that cyberattacks now cost businesses of all sizes about $200,000 per incident, on average. This represents a dramatic increase in the average cost of a data breach, especially for small to midsize businesses (SMBs).
Spam email is nothing new. We’re all used to receiving spam messages, and having an overflowing junk folder is just part of having an email account. In fact, we may joke about the particularly funny or cringe-worthy spam emails we happen to find when we peruse that junk folder. Luckily, email filtering has gotten pretty good—most of us only see a fraction of the spam that’s sent to us actually make it to our inboxes.
As companies flock to social media for their branding needs and employees continue to spend time on the likes of Facebook, Twitter, and other social sites, there’s a growing concern about the risks associated with using these sites—concerns that could threaten the security of your business.
While we may envision hackers sitting in dark rooms hovering over computers with lines of code scrolling down their screens, the portrait of modern hackers is much more sinister. In fact, today’s hackers and cyber attackers are much more akin to the con artist or snake oil salesman of old.
When it comes to protecting your computer network, we spend a lot of time talking about hacking, viruses, and cybercrime. While it’s incredibly important to protect your business from digital attacks, you also need to think about the physical security of your network.
People have many commonsense ways of protecting themselves, their homes, and their belongings. You likely practice safety habits daily like locking the front door or keeping valuables out of sight, yet how often do you think to lock your work computer before walking away? The unfortunate truth is that employees are often the cause of security breaches and malware infections. Companies owe it to themselves to help employees develop safer computing habits and be more conscientious of their use of the company’s computers.
Your computer is acting weird. Strange messages are popping up, everything has slowed to a crawl, and you can’t get your work done. Obviously, something is wrong. You fear your computer has a virus, but you’re not sure.
People store an enormous amount of information online. The average American has over 130 online accounts – and that number is quickly rising! Unfortunately, too many people use poor password practices, or link accounts together, which puts all their online data at risk. In response, many services are turning to two-factor or two-step authentication to help safeguard your online accounts.