Cybercriminal activity is one of the biggest challenges that humanity will face in the next four years. Cybersecurity experts predict that cybercrime will cost the world $6 trillion annually by 2021.
Just to look at this another way the illegal drug trade makes $110 billion for heroin, $130 billion for cocaine, $75 billion for cannabis and $60 billion for synthetic drugs, the probable global figure for the total illicit drug industry would be approximately $375 billion.
Cyber Crime in 2015 it reportedly made $3 trillion.
The damage cost projections are based on historical cybercrime figures including recent year-on-year growth, a dramatic increase in nation-state-sponsored cyber warfare, organized crime gang hacking activities.
Cyber attacks are the fastest growing crimes and they are increasing in size, sophistication and therefore cost.
We are edging closer and closer to total reliance on the power at our fingertips everything we use and interact with is connected to the network which is connected to the cyber world.
Cybercrime costs are not just made up of stolen money but also the damage and destruction of data, lost productivity, theft of intellectual property, theft of personal and financial data, the simple disruption to the normal course of business, and in some cases the businesses reputation is harmed.
The risk is very real and we can’t allow ourselves to be lulled into an air of inevitability. We all have a role to play in how we protect our businesses from the accelerating threat of cybercrime.
When you think how fast we have developed.
The World Wide Web was invented in 1989. (28 years old)
The first-ever website went live in 1991.
Today there are more than 1.2 billion websites.
There were 2 billion Internet users in 2015.
There are 3.8 billion Internet users today, Predictions put it at 6 billion by 2022.
The world's projected population in 2022 is 7.9 billion.
A child born today will be over 4 years of age, and an internet user you can be sure of that.
At the moment there’s a push on securing medical devices such as pacemakers to protect them from hackers.
“Johnson & Johnson warned customers about a security bug in one of its insulin pumps only last year”.
As hackers increasingly take advantage of lax security. Defending medical embedded devices has taken on new urgency on two fronts. There’s a need to protect patients so that attackers can’t hack an insulin pump to administer a fatal dose. However vulnerable medical devices also connect to sensors and monitors, making them potential entry points to hospital networks.
So you have the facts. The projections they are not mad off the wall statements, Yet Business owners acknowledge but ignore.
Historically street crime grew in relation to population growth, we are witnessing a similar evolution of cybercrime.
Cybercriminal activity is one of the biggest challenges that humanity will face in the next year. Cybersecurity experts predict that cybercrime will cost the world $6 trillion annually by 2021.
look at this another way the illegal drug trade reportedly makes
So the probable global figure for the total illicit drug industry would be approximately $375 billion.
A study of cyber threats by leading Security Firms found that the ransomware industry was worth €950 million in 2016.
So Ransomware attacks are profitable and productive, “this business is booming”. Now let me just clarify €950M is the amount of money spent by criminals buying ransomware software.
No one really knows how many people get caught, but it’s estimated that ransomware attacks have cost businesses an estimated $1 billion worldwide in 2016.
That’s a nice return on the criminals’ investment.
A top-notch group of Researchers monitored 21 of the largest dark web marketplaces trading ransomware in August and September 2017 (there is an estimated 6,300+ marketplace) and produced the following
KEY FINDINGS
So while Businesses ignore the articles warning them of security breaches that market will grow.
Predictions for Ransomware’s
The number of Ransomware attacks will increase
However, Ransomware will develop into a more targeted form of attack. Looking for certain file types and targeting specific companies such as Law Firms, Doctors, healthcare, also files like AutoCAD can you visualise having to re-draw them.
This not only would create such stress on companies to restore their data but also incorporate the loss of data which would be in breach of GDPR. The files could also be sold on the black market.
The risk is very real and we can’t allow ourselves to be lulled into an air of inevitability. We all have a role to play in how we protect our businesses from the accelerating threat of cybercrime.
When you think how fast we have developed.
Another year nearly over and there were quite a few changes when it came to Internet Services and the fast paced cyber sector.
At the start of 2016 the manager of Google’s security engineering team, announce that websites should have Secure Certs.
This would slowly start causing websites without SSL to fall down the page rankings. Initially and eventually simply not function correctly, till they eventually disappear from the web altogether.
We also have been told that in 2017, WordPress will start introducing features which require websites to have Secure Certs. We’ve also seen in the last few months a clamp down on sites that sell goods or services online.
You may have noticed Google removed right-hand PPC ads from search results, the world of online advertising and marketing has undergone many changes.
Google Panda, Penguin & Hummingbird became part of the core algorithm.
Google started sending out notifications to site owners & developers such as “Google has detected that your site is currently outdated” and “We suggest you update the software on your site as soon as possible. Unpatched software can be vulnerable to hacking and malware exploits that harm potential visitors to your site ”
Google started warning users that sites were non-mobile-friendly, and announced a split in it’s search engines for 2017, forcing websites to update to a mobile first environment.
They are just the big changes.
Google make about 500+ small changes per year and of course, you've also Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest etc updates to consider too.
MORE OF THE SAME. However this time businesses will get affected directly & you’re going to have no choice but sit up and take notice. With all of the above now in place, sites which are not :
Websites not conforming get consigned to the Trash Heap.
Panda deals exclusively with the words and photos on your site, so create high-quality, unique content.
Penguin deals solely with link quality and nothing else. Any sites we have built don’t have to worry. The sites that need to worry about Penguin, are ones who have hired SEO experts who might have engaged in black hat or immoral tactics.
Hummingbird will positively influence the sites that provide high-quality content. In other words which reads well to the visitor, along with providing answers to the question users are asking. It also likes what is known as long tail SEO. Word of warning, if you do get attacked by the Penguin or any other algorithm, and you manage to get it fixed, do not expect your rankings to go back overnight, you will carry the scars for a while.
The good news is you have just been told what to expect.
Even better news is Silkweb will be providing classes to help business owners through the jungle. These will start in mid January and we will be covering a variety of subjects
The new basic required topics your business will need to survive and stay in the running.
So from myself and the rest of the team have a Happy New Year and hope to see you in 2017!