Explosion in Cybercrime
There has been an explosion of cybercrime that has been building over the last three decades. Businesses have been fighting back by investing in cybersecurity. They have updated bookkeeping, accounting, and antivirus software and taken more extreme measures to protect privacy. The reason for the explosion of cybercrime is simple, profitability. Without security measures, cyber-fraud can be devastating to a business.
The growth of cybercrime has coincided with the development of hacking. A hacker is a highly skilled IT specialist who understands the subtleties of computer data and code. The two types of IT-hackers, “White hat” and “Black hat.” “Black hat” hackers are cybercriminals, while “White Hat” hackers are security specialists that work in cybersecurity.
Cybercriminals create computer viruses and Trojans that can:
- steal access codes to bank accounts
- advertise products or services on the victim’s computer
- illegally use the resources of the infected computer to develop and implement network attacks (also called DDoS attacks)
- blackmail
To protect against cybercriminals, security technology has been designed to prevent computer attacks and access to user data. Multi-level antivirus protection is one of the most effective cybersecurity protections developed. Antivirus software that combines signature method, experiential analysis, and cloud technologies, confidently protect your devices and your data from new sophisticated threats.
Some of these complex threats and attacks are:
- Misappropriation and embezzlement of other people’s money or property. This happens when, for example, a bank employee uses his legitimate access to payroll in a computer system, changing the data so that he receives additional funds as a result. Or when he uses his computer to transfer funds from bank accounts to his account.
- Illegal appropriation, which differs from embezzlement by the fact that the values were not assigned to the criminal, but he, having access to the system, changes the documents, as a result of which he acquires the right to property that should not have belonged to him;
- Industrial espionage, when employees of the enterprise use computers and networks to steal commercial secrets (for example, a recipe for a drink made by a competitor). Theft can also include financial data, confidential client lists, marketing strategies, or other information that can be used to undermine business or obtain a competitive advantage.
- Plagiarism – theft of copyright materials and their subsequent use as their own.
- Piracy, i.e., unauthorized copying of copyrighted software, as well as music, movies, books, other works of art, which inflicts losses to the rightful owner of the copyright.
- Theft of personal data when the Internet is used to obtain personal data of the victim, for example, license numbers, credit card numbers, and bank accounts for subsequent fraudulent activities, including obtaining money or other property using personal data.
The escalation and explosion of cybercrime is a problem that everyone with a computer is vulnerable to. Businesses need to be especially concerned and protect themselves as well as clients connected electronically. Updating bookkeeping, financial, and antivirus software and adding other cybersecurity will ensure the business and individuals never become a victim of cybercrime.
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