The bon mot that “crime doesn’t pay” certainly predates the advent of cybercrime. Today, these digital hold-ups against businesses are highly profitable. Let’s face it: if cybercrime was a publicly traded stock, realizing the return on investment, we’d all be on the phone with our respective broker begging for them to include it in our portfolio.
In sum, cybercrime is big business. And business, unfortunately, is paying the price for it, both figuratively as well as literally in all kinds of ways that have gone well beyond the relatively mundane instances of worms and phreakers. Hackers, cyber thieves and just plain bad actors continue to innovative their nefarious schemes to influence sketchy decisions (and actions) by consumers and businesses and to profit from an organization’s loss of data and reputation.
RSA recently surveyed various inflection points associated with this virtual crime wave to produce its 2016 Current State of Cybercrime report. Each has the ability to disrupt business as usual, others have the power to take over identities and, in extreme cases, even threaten someone’s life.
From mobile threats and ransomware to the role of biometrics in reducing fraud, to the rise of card-not-present fraud and the perceived (and even very real) threats inspired by the Internet of Things (IoT), a myriad of threats exist across the cyber landscape.
The industrialization of fraud is making it easier and cheaper to launch attacks on a global scale. As attackers are well-organized and well-informed, take advantage of the latest fraud as-a-service innovations and capitalize on shared intelligence in the deep web, organizations must be prepared to do the same.
While being attentive will not keep you (or your business for that matter) out of the crosshairs of a bad actor’s line of sight or out of the headlines, it is still possible to change how we detect and respond to an attack in order to minimize the potential for loss or damage. Our 2016 State of Cybercrime report examines the current state of cybercrime and explores how organizations and individuals can respond to the industrialized and persistent proliferation of the cybercrime threat.
You can access the full 2016: Current State of Cybercrime report here.
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