2020/06/01 IT & Cyber-Security Solutions 2766 visit(s)
The high-profile data breaches that involve Twitter, LinkedInor Facebooks are only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the digital crimes being perpetrated day after day, especially against small businesses. Today small businesses in Saudi Arabia make 70% of cybercriminal’s targets in the kingdom and there is no going back!
When it comes to ensuring the highest levels of cyber security, being cyber aware is oftentimes your first, solid line of defense against 80% of today’s cyber threats. The rest depends on ensuring you have powerful security as well as effective backup solution in place. Well, before we get deeper into the cyber security subject, we first need to define the very purely dark side of the internet, which is – as the name suggests – the Dark Web.
The dark web is part of the internet that involves criminal cyber activities. If the Dark Web were a person, this would be the person your parents would always warn you about, just like those "Bad People" in the world. The Dark Web is a hidden universe contained within the “Deep Web”- a sublayer of the Internet that is hidden from conventional search engines. The search engines you use every day like Google, BING and Yahoo only search .04% of the “surface” Internet. The other 99.96% of the Web consists of databases, private academic and government networks, and the Dark Web. Because the Dark Web operates anonymously, it holds a wealth of stolen data and illegal activity.
Well, that’s truly a question that ONLY you can answer, so let’s see if we can do that here and now!
Should your credit card number be known by everyone around you? Are all of your passwords extremely difficult? Or are they “password”, “12345678” or a child/pet’s name? Do you now or have you ever had a Gmail, Yahoo or LinkedIn account?
Not close enough to home yet? What about your children’s Facebook accounts?
How does this effect you? Do you want to spend every free moment you have closing accounts, resetting passwords or forcing your children to stay off those social media channels that all their friends are available on? No, you can’t while trying to remain sane. Your information is already out there. Changing your password or using a New/Different email account isn’t going to accomplish anything except wasting your personal time.
Hackers are relentless, egotistical and outright sociopaths. They work every day to breach businesses of every size. They may not even know who you are but the fact that they found your network online and could get through the firewall is all they care about.
Once they have accomplished their initial goal, the fun for them has only just begun. They will take anything they please then even upload viruses and ransomware to your network. When they find any information they like and can use, they immediately like to capture it and post it all over the DarkWEB. Why? Its their arrogance. They want and NEED to brag about the accomplishments to their peers to elevate their status in the Hacker community. One hacker breaches a Credit Union, another must breach a Bank to ONE UP them.
Why does this matter to you? This is your information, your livelihood! They will use any and all information to intentionally ruin lives, just because it’s fun for them. Sick? Yes! But this is the world we live in today.
Still not convinced of the urgency? Are you willing to be the NEXT business to get SHUT DOWN for being irresponsible and not addressing security issues? What about the people falsely arrested for criminal activity on their accounts that wasn’t actually them? Or maybe you just get turned down for that new mortgage on the dream home that you’ve been planning for years… all because a hacker took and sold your personal information.
Now that you know, stay tuned for our next blog – which will be published within less than 24 hours – to help you protect yourself and your business by taking the right steps to prevent cybercrime.