Is my business at risk of cyber crime?

Cyber crimes are criminal/illegal activities that have been carried out using computers and/or the internet.

Due to the fact that computers and the internet play an increasing part in both our personal and our business lives, there are a wide variety of crimes that do in fact fall under the term ‘cyber crime’.

For example, most of us have received an unsolicited email at some point (known as SPAM); but rather than simply being an annoyance it is illegal and is therefore a cyber crime.

The most common types of cyber crime are:

• virus infection to business computers
• phishing – where sensitive information such as passwords are stolen by someone pretending to be from the bank for example
• debit and credit card fraud.

Although you may have security on your IT solutions, cyber crime is rapidly evolving and there is always a risk that you may have been compromised.  You can take steps to mitigate this risk, and should consider having a policy that regularly reviews any threat to your business.

You can find out more about protecting your business against cyber threats at https://www.cyberstreetwise.com/cyberessentials/ 

Cyber Essentials is a government-backed, industry supported scheme to help organisations protect themselves against common cyber attacks.