If you have been unlucky enough to fall victim to a cyber security attack be aware that there is a significant increase in the chance of it happening again.
A recent industry survey found that 39 per cent of companies targeted by some form of cybercrime were getting hit again within 12 months. And of that number, two thirds are targetedmultiple times.
Experts believe that the criminals are taking advantage of companies that don’t update their cyber security strategies and assume the worst is over after the first strike.
The most common form of cyber crime, according to the companies surveyed, was malware attacks (55%) followed by ransomware attacks (40%). Other approaches included Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) attacks, and crypto-jacking, where a hacker co-opts a target’s computing power to illicitly mine cryptocurrency on the hacker’s behalf.
Individuals who are targeted say that phishing emails are the most common (56%) which try to trick the intended victim into clicking on to malicious links that install malware. Other popular methods include trying to direct the end user to fake login pages to steal usernames,passwords and personal details.
It may sound like common sense but if you or your business are the victim on a cyber attackit’s imperative you apply security updates as soon as possible and, if possible, equip all users with multi-factor authentication (MFA).
Alongside applying security patches and using MFA there is a wealth of free and easily accessible information available at the NEBRC website at www.nebrcentre.co.uk. The NEBRC is a not for profit police led company trusted to help SME’s and sole traders identify risk and suggest solutions. Or contact us for further information at: [email protected]