01 Aug Cyber-crime
They are out to get you
It’s no secret that online crime is increasing. In recent years, we have all become more wary of unexpected emails from Nigerian princes or calls from Microsoft. But despite this, cyber-crime is on the up-and-up, with cyber criminals being vastly more sophisticated and well resourced. It is the fastest growing form of crime and depending on which statistics you believe, sometime in the last 6 years, it surpassed the global drugs trade for the amount of money it generated for the criminals behind it. It is insanely profitable for these criminals, so it is bound to continue to increase in frequency and sophistication.
Data out of the US of A shows that the average cost of a data breach for a small to mid-sized business is $117,000. Ouch. Yep, cyber-crime is big business, it is estimated that the cost to the global economy is already in the trillions of dollars a year (yes, trillions), with at least one estimate suggesting it will cost $6 trillion a year by 2021. For comparison, New Zealand’s GDP is only a couple of hundred billion – so cyber crime is worth significantly more than the New Zealand economy.
There is a whole host of cyber risks, all of which are at least a little terrifying. In our line of work one cyber risk we are seeing more and more of, is phishing emails. These are emails masquerading as being from legitimate sources. These are particularly prevalent appearing to be from IRD or banks. In simple terms, you receive an email that looks legitimate, but when you click the link/open the attachment, it either gathers sensitive data (that is later used to empty your bank account) or implants malicious software on your computer. Read about recognising them here.
If you receive an unexpected email from your bank, IRD or any other organisation that asks you to click through to update details or offers an unexpected windfall, it will pay to call and check – even if the email and the website it leads you to looks legitimate; here is an example from IRD that recently featured in the NZ Herald. And never call the phone number provided on the email (or any website you click through to from the email), they have thought of that and it is usually a fake! It is unfortunate that we must be so cynical and vigilant, but at present, this appears to be the best defence.
On a final note, you can do everything right, but either a retailer you have made a purchase through or an agency can let you down. This was realised by most Bulgarians recently when the Bulgarian National Tax Agency was hacked, and the financial records of nearly every working Bulgarian were exposed.
We are creating a series of recommendations for how to keep ourselves safe – contact us if you would like us to help you.
