Common threats to your privacy include: wire transfer fraud, ransomware, and child predators.
Wire Transfer Fraud
Wire transfer fraud occurs when a manual bank transfers funds between two people or an organization. Attackers typically compromise the email domain and look for finance and payment-related employees or owners of the account.
Attackers typically hide in your email for months, waiting for a payment to compromise. Once a payment to compromise is found and the two entities exchange emails with payment info, the attacker inserts a second email making it seem like there was a transcription error, asking to use the new account number (or take the exchanged credentials and attack the bank account directly). They then divert the transferred money out of the fake destination before it is noticed by the bank or parties involved.
Have you put in place authenticated verification of wire transfers that use multiple mechanisms to prevent this type of theft?
Ransomware
Ransomware is malicious software (malware) that encrypts data and critical system files, rendering computers and data unusable without decryption. Decryption is only possible with a key that is only provided if a ransom is paid to the attacker.
These ransoms are paid using cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and range from hundreds to millions of dollars in ransom demands. The attacks are sophisticated in their methods of attacking and infecting homes and organizations, and have evolved to include sophisticated and difficult to discern phishing emails and malware to spread their ransomware payloads- the Emotet virus is currently the most common.
Ransomware attackers have developed sophisticated operations with help desks, 24×7 technical support, and trained negotiators. They make every attempt to encrypt during off-hours and target backup mechanisms to make recovery without paying the ransom very difficult – as a result, many pay the ransom to recover their systems and data in days rather than weeks or months - or not at all. Ransomware-infected companies have even had to go out of business because of the cost of recovery.
Online Child Predators
More than 500,000 predators are online daily.
FBI statistics show that more than 50 percent of victims of online sexual exploitation are 12-15 years old and are at increased risk of being groomed and manipulated by online offenders.
In a 2019 study on children’s internet usage, ISC2 reports that 40% of children in grades 4-8 have connected online with a stranger. Of that 40%:
- 53% report they revealed their phone number to a stranger
- 21% report they spoke with a stranger by phone
- 15% report they tried to meet the stranger
- 30% report they text a stranger from their phone
- 11% report they actually met the stranger
You, your family, community and business have the right to privacy and security in your physical and digital environment. Join CrowdPoint to defend the human right to privacy.