Cybercrime – and the little book of cyber scams
Information technology is evolving very rapidly and providing fantastic opportunities to enhance our business processes, communicate easier, and achieve more in so many different ways. However, it can unfortunately be subject to criminal abuse that can harm your organization, its customers, and its workers. It seems that every few days there is news of a well-known business being the victim of some form of cybercrime - those attacks can have significant impacts.
Today came news that Google is shutting down much of its social network, Google+, after user data was left exposed. It said a bug in its software meant information that people believed was private had been accessible by third parties, and up to 500,000 users had been affected.
Last month, it was revealed that British Airways had been targeted by malicious hackers, meaning personal and financial details of customers making bookings had been compromised. About 380,000 transactions were reportedly affected. This has caused damage to the airline's reputation and the CEO is promising compensation.
Cybercrime does not only affect large organizations. We all need to be aware of the risks we face, and improve our information security controls and resilience.
A useful booklet has been developed by London's Metropolitan Police to assist you to protect your organization and its customers from cybercrime.