Those are the big guys. Their goals are political and defense oriented. But we all know there are a ton of operations out there - petty thieves and syndicates out there who just want to steal money.
"Some 15.4 million consumers were victims of identity theft or fraud last year, according to a new report from Javelin Strategy & Research. That's up 16 percent from 2015, and the highest figure recorded since the firm began tracking fraud instances in 2004."- CNBC, 2017
The highest increase is in
card not presenttransactions - those in which anyone with credit card information can make a purchase without presenting a card. These crimes increased by 40% from the prior year.
Are you playing a numbers game? Hoping to be obscure and safe by hiding among the millions online?
Of course we can't. The hackers use very effective scanning and searching tools to find vulnerable systems. It's no longer a matter of not being discovered, it's about being able to be invisible as well as hardening our systems.
Are you and your systems up to the challenge? Take a look at this quick quiz to see if you're up-to-date on some of today's threats.
- What's phishing?
- Can you be hacked if you use antivirus software?
- What's an IPS?
- Can you name 5 characteristics of safe password practice?
- Would your systems pass a port scan?
- What's a credential dump?
- Are you protected against ransomware?
- Have an automated backup for each of your systems?