Today, March 17, 2021, The FBI has released the Internet Crime Complaint Center 2020 Internet Crime Report, including Covid-19 scam statistics. There were 791,790 complaints in 2020, nearly double from 2019, with losses exceeding 4.2 billion. The top 3 crimes reported were Phishing scams, non-payment/non-delivery scams and extortion. Victims of these crimes saw the Business Email Compromise scams (BEC) Romance & Confidence schemes and the ever-popular investment fraud steal the most money. Covid-19 scams were popular pocketing money and information that later became available on the Dark Web.
We frequently meet with clients who have this false opinion that their business is too small or trivial to be targeted by Bad Guys, hackers, scammers, trouble makers or just general criminals. The fact is that every business, large or small, is a possible target for these criminals. The threat has become such a concern the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) issued a High Impact Cyber-Attack Warnings that all organizations need to be prepared for a cyber attack on their network.
In 2019, a report written by the Ponemon Institute produced a survey of 1000 IT Support providers about the state of cybersecurity in small and medium-sized businesses. It revealed that 67% of their SMBs had encountered a cyberattack while another 58% have had a data breach in the previous 12 months. Another report writes that 60% of all SMB's that have had a breach fail within 180 days. The breach will cost SMB's: time, money, loss of reputation, possible fines, network downtime, loss of revenue coming into the business, loss of data and maximum effort to fix what was broken or stolen.
In Oregon, The most targeted victims were people over 60 who, on average, lost $7,030 per incident. The 40-49 age group was the 2nd most targeted with an average loss of $6,200. Still, the under 20 age group had an average of $20,841 stolen from them per incident. Our experience is that the under 20 are the least protected from the bad guys and give the least effort in protecting themselves from cybersecurity risks. (See my blog on Social Media overexposure)
Find out if a business that you work with has been breached … "Oregon law requires businesses and state agencies to notify any Oregon consumer whose personal information was subject to a breach of security. In the event that a breach affected more than 250 Oregon consumers, the law also requires that a sample copy of a breach notice sent to more than 250 Oregon consumers must also be provided to the Oregon Attorney General." https://www.doj.state.or.us/consumer-protection/id-theft-data-breaches/data-breaches/
Most of these breaches were preventable. Furthermore, companies that do not manage credit card data or any customer/client information believe that cybercriminals will not target their company network. In truth, the Bad Guys are targeting multiple computer networks to find vulnerabilities, obtain sensitive information, take control of your network, lock your data up and demand financial payment to have it restored or to cause damage.
The simple fact is if your business/organization has an online presence, you are at risk. You must adopt cybersecurity as a business strategy to guard both your stored data and network resources.
If you're concerned, I do have an assessment offer that, within 30 minutes, I can help assess your network and your vulnerabilities. https://www.10dtech.com/free-network-assessment/ It's a free assessment with no ongoing obligations, just an easy way to discover where you need to focus your efforts in the next 6 months.
Oregon's Cybersecurity, Network, Telephone & Managed I.T. Services experts. We are enabling technology solutions that keep your business running smoothly. The Gold standard with white-glove treatment solution to ensuring your organization stays protected. We are pioneers of internet and VoIP services and we know I.T.
