What do Bitcoin, Yahoo, the World Anti-Doping Agency and Sony have in common?
They have all been victims of cybercrime. The consequences, whilst not just financially punitive, have had detrimental effects on the brands in question as the security of their sensitive information is compromised.
Whilst these are the companies that make international headlines, according to PwC’s 2016 Irish Economic Crime Survey, cyber-attacks have almost doubled since 2012, and the main driver of internal economic crime is opportunities prompted by poor control environments.
The report states that globally 36% of organisations were victims of economic crime with cybercrime representing nearly a third of all crimes.
Nearly half (44%) of organisations in Ireland who reported economic crime suffered a cyber-attack in the last two years. This has almost doubled since 2012 (25%) and is substantially higher than the global results (32%). Of those affected by cybercrime in Ireland, nearly one in five incurred losses of between €92k and €4.6m.
Waterford company HCS Business Solutions will host a free SMB seminar, ‘TechSecure – Defending today’s threats with modern security solutions’ to highlight the security risks to businesses and the precautions that should be taken to minimise the breaches.
According to Neil Phelan, Director of HCS, many businesses may believe they have sufficient firewalls and safeguards in place, however the risks are manifold.
“The rapid advancement of technology has fundamentally changed business process and our day to day working lives. While these advancements have introduced efficiencies, they also bring with it a greater dependency on IT systems. Therefore, companies must protect their IT systems to keep operating.”
“There are many risks to IT systems such as cybercrime, hardware and software disasters, natural disasters and malicious intent that must be mitigated against to protect your business.”
“The risks can also come from within the organisation structure. 31% of security breaches are as a result of human error or the actions of negligent staff.”
Mr. Phelan added, “Hackers have become more sophisticated and nuanced in their attacks and are deploying a more targeted and believable approach to obtaining sensitive information or to holding a business to ransom.”
“Many employees have been duped into clicking on a link that shouldn’t be clicked or opening an email attachment that isn’t legitimate. This can release computer malware, known as ransomware, into the user’s computer, which in turn executes a cryptovirology attack that cannot be reversed until a ransom is paid to remove it.”
Mr. Phelan added a cyber security strategy is absolutely crucial to any business to protect themselves against such attacks.
HCS Business Solutions intends to host a series of free TechSecure events for SMB’s throughout the region over the coming months. These free seminars will further examine cybercrime, the effects on Irish SMB’s, measures to safeguard against cyber-attacks and provide free vulnerability tests.
The first HCS TechSecure event for SMB’s takes place at HCS Business Solutions, Cleaboy Business Park, Waterford on Thursday, November 3rd at 5.30pm. Places are free, but limited and booking is essential.
To register your place visit www.hcs.ie/hcs-techsecure or call Orlaith at HCS Business Solutions on 051 595200.