Hacking into sensitive data and information is a cyber criminal activity that can be detrimental to an organization, which is why ensuring you’re up to date with the latest data breach trends will keep you ahead of the fight against data breach and hacks.
Some prevalent cyber security breach trends in the last year include the following:
- Phishing – targets are contacted by email, telephone or text message by someone posing as a legitimate institution to lure individual(s) into providing sensitive data, financial information and passwords. Phishing isn’t just executed with emails, however email is still an incredibly popular attack vector. Be mindful of phishing activity in your SMS or smart phone messaging and on your social profiles, including LinkedIn.
- Mobile App Fraud – As we depend on our smart phones more and more both personally and professionally, they have become an infinite source of information, tracking, data, logins and media. Additionally, now with mobile payment apps and software, we have made wallets obsolete and integrated accounts into our phones, creating a heightened need for security. However, having all this information in one place does make for an ideal target for cybercrime. Studies show that 70% of fraudulent transactions originated in the mobile channel in 2018 and fraud from mobile apps has increased 680 percent since 2015. Ensure you are keeping your professional devices and personal devices separate, avoid downloading unauthorized apps and ensure password protection by changing your passcode and logins on a frequent basis.
- Ransomware – a type of malicious malware designed to deny access to a computer system or data until a ransom is paid. Ransomware is spread through phishing emails or by unknowingly visiting an infected website and can be devastating to an individual or an organization. Good practices to avoid this cybercrime include employing content scanning and filtering on your mail servers, using reputable antivirus software and a firewall(s) and refusing to provide personal information when answering an email, unsolicited phone call or text message.
Remaining vigilant with current cybercrime trends is essential for large businesses, organizations and corporations. When you are ready to rid your organization of old sensitive data, you need a guaranteed safe and secure data erasure or destruction service. Lifespan Technology provides a full range of IT Asset Disposition services, including hardware recycling and disposal, data destruction and hardware resale for best value.
