YOUR FINANCIAL DATA IS AT RISK
Can you guess how many Brits had their financial data compromised last year? It’s much more than one in a million. According to the London-headquartered international law firm RPC, more than 42 million. That’s more than 75% of the adults in the country. RPC also claimed that financial data breaches had increased by a whopping 1777% – or a factor of almost 2000 – compared to 2020 when only 2.2 million individuals were victims of digital violations involving financial data.
A SPIKE IN RANSOMWARE
RFC also accessed data from the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) relating to organisations that suffered a breach, including that of financial data, and stated that this massive spike was partially due to an aggressive increase in ransomware attacks in the UK between June 2020 and June 2021. Richard Breavington, a partner at RPC, explained why the foraging of financial data by cybercriminals was becoming so prevalent and said:
“The surprisingly high number of people whose financial data was impacted in the last year shows how cyberattacks have become endemic. Hackers are continually refining their methods, employing ever more complex techniques to extort money in whatever way they can.”
TO PAY OR NOT TO PAY – THAT IS THE QUESTION
Breavington also added that if a victim refused to pay the ransom, cybercrooks would threaten to sell the stolen financial data or leak it on the Dark Web. This ploy was becoming increasingly popular as data encryption methods were deemed less effective as UK businesses improved their information backup systems. Breavington, who leads the Cyber & Tech insurance team at RPC, also detailed why some companies still decide to pay up:
“Some businesses, fearing the potential reputational costs, not to mention other consequences, decide that they will take the last-ditch approach of paying the ransom demands. As a result, these attacks have become very lucrative for cybercriminals.”
THE TRICKS UP YOUR SLEEVE
The majority of malware containing ransomware – 90% in fact – is embedded in phishing emails – either as malicious links or downloadable attachments. If you want to protect your financial data, don’t click or download – it’s that simple. Another way that your laptop or PC gets infected with ransomware is by drive-by download attacks. These cyberattacks exploit vulnerabilities in your outdated apps, browsers or operating systems to eavesdrop on user communications, steal session credentials, install keyloggers and botnet toolkits, and deploy ransomware. Sometimes even visiting a compromised website is enough. How do you avoid drive-by? Patch and update your OS, apps and browser. And don’t visit dodgy websites. If you don’t see a lock, it’s not safe.
MY RANSOMWARE TRICKS
Your financial data is yours and that’s how it should stay. If you have any concerns about your IT, cybersecurity, ransomware, or anything else in the cyber world, please get in touch. I have IT and cyber protection in my blood with over 20 years of experience in providing professional business IT management and support. I specialise in cybersecurity and risk mitigation. Reach out and and let’s make a plan to protect your financial data, forever.