What Should You Do If You're The Victim Of Cybercrime?

03-Jul-2019

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Cybercrime is an increasing threat to businesses of all sizes. From data breaches to phishing scams, cybercriminals are constantly finding new ways to infiltrate company networks and steal valuable information.

Unfortunately, cybercrime is not limited to large enterprises. Small and medium-sized businesses are also at risk of being targeted, and often don't have the same resources to protect themselves.

In this blog post, we'll help you understand what to do if you're the victim of cybercrime and how to minimise the impact on your business.

The Future Prediction of Cybercrime

According to Cybersecurity Ventures, global cybercrime costs are expected to increase by 15 percent annually over the next five years.

By 2025, these costs are projected to reach a staggering $10.5 trillion USD per year, marking the largest shift of economic wealth in history. This not only puts innovation and investment at risk but also surpasses the damage caused by natural disasters in a single year.

In fact, it is estimated to be more profitable than the global trade of all major illegal drugs combined.

The estimation of damage costs takes into account historical cybercrime data, including recent year-over-year growth, a significant rise in hacking activities sponsored by hostile nation-states and organised crime gangs, and an anticipated increase in the cyberattack surface by 2025.

These cybercrime costs encompass various aspects, such as data damage and destruction, financial losses, decreased productivity, intellectual property theft, compromise of personal and financial information, embezzlement, fraud, disruption in business operations following an attack, forensic investigations, data and system restoration and deletion, as well as reputational damage.

As per UK government, in the last 12 months, approximately 32% of businesses and 24% of charities have reported experiencing breaches or attacks.

However, the rates go significantly higher for medium businesses at 59%, large businesses at 69%, and high-income charities with annual incomes exceeding £500,000 at 56%.

These statistics highlight the importance of cybersecurity measures in safeguarding organisations against potential threats.

So, it’s absolutely crucial that you,

a) have a Disaster Recovery Plan in place

b) know what to do in the event of a cyber attack

Cybercriminals are on the prowl for vulnerabilities in your IT ecosystem - they want your passwords, your data, and, most likely, your money.

If you’ve been the victim of a cyber attack, it can be devastating for your business; so, to stop the problem from getting bigger or more detrimental, let's discuss the course of action you should take.

What Should You Do If You're The Victim Of Cybercrime?

Here are the steps to be taken if you are the victim of cybercrime:

1. Act Quickly

The first step if you believe you've been the victim of cybercrime is to act quickly. Time is of the essence when it comes to preventing further damage, and it's important to take immediate action.

Change all passwords, notify all affected parties, and start an investigation as soon as possible. If you have a cyber incident response plan in place, now is the time to put it into action. If you don't have one, consider creating one for future incidents.

2. Contact Law Enforcement

One of the most important steps in responding to cybercrime is to contact your local law enforcement agency.

They can provide valuable assistance in identifying the perpetrators, gathering evidence, and protecting your assets. They may also be able to work with other agencies to investigate and prosecute the attackers.

If you are a business operating in the UK, you can report issues to Action Fraud.

Additionally, the National Crime Agency in the UK co-ordinates efforts to fight cybercrime by working closely with UK police, regional organised crime units, Europol, the FBI and the US Secret Service.

3. Notify Your Customers

If your customers' personal information or financial data was compromised in the cyber attack, it's important to notify them as soon as possible. Depending on your business and the extent of the breach, you may be required by law to notify them.

Even if you're not legally obligated, it's the right thing to do. Be transparent with your customers about what happened, what information was involved, and what steps you're taking to address the situation.

4. Work With Cybersecurity Professionals

Cybersecurity experts can help you diagnose, contain and remediate the cyber attack. They can also help you create a comprehensive plan to prevent future attacks.

Engaging cybersecurity professionals can help protect your business from further vulnerabilities and risks and assist you in preserving data. They use sophisticated tools and techniques to determine where the vulnerability appeared and create policies and plans to help a business to manage its cybersecurity.

5. Evaluate and Learn

Finally, it's important to evaluate the incident and learn from it. After the initial crisis is over, take some time to review your response, identify what went well and what didn't, and develop new strategies to address risks.

Cybercrime is constantly evolving, and it requires businesses to continually update and adapt their cybersecurity policies.

Conclusion

Being the victim of cybercrime can be a stressful and overwhelming experience for any business.

However, by acting quickly, contacting law enforcement, notifying your customers, working with cybersecurity professionals, and learning from the experience, you can mitigate the impact it has on your business.

Remember, the best defense is a good offense. Make sure you have a comprehensive cybersecurity policy and plan in place, always update and improve your security, and stay vigilant against new threats.

Important note on GDPR:

As defined in the GDPR Article 4(12):

'personal data breach' means a breach of security leading to the accidental or unlawful destruction, loss, alteration, unauthorised disclosure of, or access to, personal data transmitted, stored or otherwise processed;

If there has been an instance whereby the personal data of individuals has been stolen from a secure website, or passwords, usernames and purchase histories have been extracted and distributed online during a cyber attack, it is very likely that you will have to report the incident to the ICO.

[Download our free whitepaper to l earn more about GDPR compliance ]

How can aztech help you?

We can help with user awareness training, penetration testing, IT security policy reviews and more, to help you protect your business. We can also help you build a bespoke disaster recovery plan, so if your systems do go down, you can recover quickly with minimal downtime.

If you'd like to learn more about our Cyber Security Services, or want to know what constitutes a data breach, get in touch and one of our specialists will be happy to help.