A look at the possible cybercrime attacks for 2017

As technology becomes more important in our daily life, it only opens up more doors for cybercrime attacks to happen. With a myriad of cyber attacks becoming common every day, it’s important to identify what is looking to become a threat in 2017. Thankfully, we’re going to cover some of the possible threats coming our way and what can be done to prevent them.

Mobile Advances & Weaknesses

Mobile services are becoming a major part of how we communicate, shop, and run our businesses. Sadly, cybercriminals understand this as well. Fraud attempts have been on the rise, with the RSA uncovering that almost 60% of all confirmed fraud transactions came from a mobile device. These cases of fraud could lead to businesses:

• Developing more authentication programs and security checks for their customers. With mobile applications looking to outpace Web transactions for the first time in 2017, cyber criminals are looking to generate easy money from unsuspecting victims via mobile applications. Thankfully, many initiatives are happening at the moment that involves eye prints, voice, or fingerprints for verification before a purchase can be made (or a service can be provided).

Shopping On Your Tab

Online money transfer programs and bill pay services have become an easy way for cyber criminals to go shopping on another’s tab. To put the numbers into perspective, card-not-present-fraud is looking to reach over seven billion dollars by 2020. With one in five bill pay services and online money transfers being fraudulent transactions, significant security measures must be applied to ensure that purchases are being made with the account owner’s knowledge before they happen. These cases of fraud could lead to businesses:

• Enhancing the common “1x password” precaution for purchases. With issuers and merchants looking to formulate new security options for the upcoming 2.0 framework, be prepared for new password and identity affirming programs to be deployed shortly for transactions.

Phishing Remains An Issue

Phishing will continue to be a threat as long as people continue to fall for the attacks. Regardless if it’s a consumer or an executive, cybercriminals will continue to search for new victims. With a successful phishing attack happening every hour, these attacks have accumulated at least nine billion dollars in losses for businesses in 2016. These attacks could lead to companies:

• Improving employee training on what phishing is and how to handle an attack.

Considering the information above, it’s somewhat important to understand what to look for when it comes to cyber attacks. Thankfully, Vertical IT is here to help your business keep these attacks far and away. So if you happen to live in New England, feel free to contact us at (888) 505-8215 or info@verticalitcorp.com so we can protect you today.