If you think you’re safe, think again!

Rise of Cybercrime

Today we are more advanced, more connected and more vulnerable than we had ever been. We are constantly working on newer technologies, and everyday we become even more advanced, connected and vulnerable than we were yesterday. The catalyst in the whole process has been the advent of cloud services. More and more information is being stored in Phone, laptops, and IOT devices that are becoming more and more connected. All this makes a perfect recipe for a cyber crime attack.

So you think you’re safe?

If you think you are safe within the firewalls and antivirus software, you probably need to think again! Because the cyber security criminals might be really smarter than you think they are. The fact that there have been endless attacks just goes on to prove that. Therefore it’s important to be one step ahead of them, be aware, and be fully prepared. The famous Warren Buffet quote is perfectly apt here, “In order to succeed, you must first survive.” It does not matter what probability of a safe scenario is if the attack is too costly to bear.

All the organizations, be it any country or industry, are at risk. There is no exception. It doesn’t matter what the size of your business is. Often times a lot of small and medium sized companies are reluctant to invest in solutions that seem expensive on the face of it. They live in their own bubble of safety, assuming they are not big enough to be targeted. They forget the underlying principle, the attack is not on the size or any other specific characteristics, its on the vulnerabilities!

In India there were over 3.94 lakh cyber-security incidents reported in 2019, according to Computer Emergency Response Team- India. Out of these 48 websites of central and state governments. It also included start ups like OYO, Vedantu and Nykaa.

Impact of cybercrime

According to a research done by Ponemon Institute and sponsored by IBM Security, the cost of cybercrime is 3.92 Mn. But that is just the financial cost. The reputational cost, lost business opportunities and fines for compliance violations that come with it is disastrous. The cost of compliance has been on the rise in the recent years. The Personal Data Protection Bill-2019 has been introduced in the parliament by the IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad which regulated the data privacy. Under the bill, the companies would be liable for tough penalties and awarding compensation to users in cases of non-compliance.

Types of Cybercrime

• Phishing

• Spear-phishing similar to the Moby dick story

• Whailing

• Ransomware

• Zero-day exploit

• Web and system based exploitations

Examples of Damages

These are just the few that made headlines out of the numerous that keep happening everyday. And if you’re not on the list yet, you might soon be!

• Equifax

• Ebay

• Adult Friend Finder

• Yahoo

• UK National Health Service

• T-mobile

• Premera Blue Cross

• Anthem

• Carefirst

• Ashley Madison

• Sony

• Home Depot

• JP Morgan

• Amazon

• Talk talk

Why go for a specialist?

It’s a tough game, and having a cyber security specialist in your team is surely going to up your game. A cyber security specialist will be able to evaluate your infrastructure from the perspective of a hacker/just how a hacker would. The specialist would be able to spot the vulnerabilities that you thought didn’t exist!