Cybercrime attacks costing more than $1,1m per minute

2 Oct

Did you know that every 60 seconds, $1,1m (R16,6m as @ 7/09/18!) is lost to cybercrime attacks? That amount of money is almost impossible to fathom, but it’s a reality! It is estimated (by RiskIQ) that a whopping 5 518 records are leaked in data breach incidents every minute. That’s hard to keep up with.

The security efforts in place, which are costing the companies that incorporate them, just aren’t working (or so it seems)!

The research carried out by RiskIQ has also uncovered the following shocking stats:

  • 1 861 individuals are scammed every 60 seconds
  • 1.5 organisations fall victim to ransomware ever 60 seconds
  • When incidents of ransomware, malware, phishing and leaked records are combined, the stats show that 2.7 million people are affected by cybercrime every 60 seconds.

The real danger comes in when organisations don’t even know that they are running vulnerable third-party code. Four vulnerable web components are discovered every 60 seconds, according to the RiskIQ stats.

An Example of how Vulnerable Third Party Code Causes Losses

A fine example of this happening is the Megacart hack. This was third party code used to access hundreds of e-commerce websites. What consumers didn’t know was that when inputting their credit cards details to make payment, their card details were being sent to a third party.

Unfortunately, there’s no way for a user to know that they are a victim to such an attack. So, what can you do to protect yourself?

  • Only make online payments via sites that you know to be reputable.
  • Always check the security of an e-commerce site before you pay.

While the cybercrime industry remains as lucrative as it is, it is expected that such cyber-attacks will only increase. Being aware of the risks and ensuring that you have various insurances in place to protect yourself from the potential losses of online payments are steps in the right direction.

Have you lost money as a result of cybercrime? Let us know about it. We would love to share stories of cybercrime to create further awareness.

 

Comments are closed.