The good news is consumer attacks are on the decline to a slow crawl, but with the good news comes the bad news and that business attacks are on the rise –at an incredible rate.  There is a common thread among the decline and rise in attacks and it is that the same approach is used.  What is the attack vector?  It is you, the person.  Social engineering, phishing and malspam through more targeted approaches like spear phishing and sextortion scams gets the hackers initial access to the systems.  The bait is the same and we continue to fall for it.  We are human and sometimes we just cannot help ourselves, no matter how hard we try.  We just have to click that link and that starts the process.

Why the change from consumer to businesses?  The end game is money.  How much money can the hacker extort from a business?  I suppose I should back up a bit and identify what the attackers want and that is Personally Identifiable Information (PII), which morphs into money.   By focusing their efforts on businesses, the hackers can potentially find a gold mine of information numbering in the millions of records, which turns into millions of dollars of ransom.

Below are some core business attack figures for the last six months:

• Business attacks have risen 235%
• Trojan Malware had an increase of 222%.  650% increase from this time last year
• Ransomware attacks exploded to 189%.  508% increase from this time last year

Core consumer attack figures for the last six months:

• Most all categories have seen a sharp decline
• Apple computers/users attack rate has risen 201%

Education is your best defense and is paramount to thwarting the actors in cyber crime.  Do not click that unknown link.  Hover your mouse pointer over the link to see where it is trying to send you.  Do not respond to content you have not requested.  If you receive an odd request from a “friend”, review the email and examine what is actually taking place.  If you are tech savvy, look at the email header information – this is always a giveaway to what may be happening.

ION Technology Group is here to help arm you with information so that you can help yourself.  The wild-wild west approach that is taking place in the United States as it pertains to technology has to change and we are trying our best to contribute to that change. Data proliferation in the wrong hands means you are at risk.  Contact ION Technology Group today to learn more about our Data Loss Prevention (DLP) services and approach at 1.856.719.1818.