{"id":14772,"date":"2024-08-02T13:38:20","date_gmt":"2024-08-02T13:38:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/trustpair.com\/blog\/cybercriminals-and-how-to-protect-your-company-against-them\/"},"modified":"2025-03-18T14:19:25","modified_gmt":"2025-03-18T14:19:25","slug":"cybercriminals-and-how-to-protect-your-company-against-them","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/trustpair.com\/gb\/blog\/cybercriminals-and-how-to-protect-your-company-against-them\/","title":{"rendered":"Cybercriminals and how to protect your company against them ?"},"content":{"rendered":"

We live in an online world. As there is very little you cannot do online these days it unfortunately includes being targeted by criminals. The COVID-19 pandemic meant that companies were forced to move to online solutions for many more aspects of their business, providing cybercriminals with even greater opportunities.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The <\/span>FBI reports<\/span><\/a> that cybercrimes are up 300% since the pandemic began. Cybercriminals use computers and other technology to commit crimes on digital systems by stealing money or information they can use for profit. They will target both companies and individuals, so it is important to be fully aware of the scams.<\/span><\/p>\n

The American company <\/span>Cybersecurity Ventures<\/span><\/a> forecast that cybercrime would cost USD 6 trillion globally in 2021, twice as much as it cost in 2015. The move to remote work has meant that the average cost of a data breach has risen by USD 137,000. Never has it been more important for organisations to protect themselves from cybercriminals. And this is only likely to increase in importance.<\/span><\/p>\n

Cybercrime does not only cost the amount of money that is stolen or the cost of retrieving data, or so on. It can cost far more in penalties and fines if industry guidelines have not been met and the reputational cost can be unlimited.<\/span><\/p>\n

What motivates cybercriminals?<\/h2>\n

The first and most obvious answer to what motivates cybercriminals is money. Cybercrime can be used to extort money and divert funds. Stolen data can be sold to third parties as well as held to ransom. The <\/span>Verizon Business 2020 Data Breach Investigations Report<\/span><\/a> found that \u201c86% of breaches were for money\u201d. Cybercriminals will access company files and information for spying by competitors or politically-motivated purposes. Finally, attacks can be instigated by competitors or rival countries to cause disruption or access information.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Types of cyber attacks<\/h2>\n

Organisations are at risk of cyberattacks including <\/span>business email compromise (BEC)<\/b><\/a>\u00a0 and all the methods that cybercriminals use to obtain money and data fraudulently. Over USD 1.86 billion was stolen in the US due to BEC and EAC (email account compromise) according to the FBI\u2019s 2020 <\/span>Internet Crime Report<\/span><\/i><\/a>. Organisations and their employees need to be aware of the methods and means used by cybercriminals to extract money or data from companies. The main techniques used are:<\/span><\/p>\n