What is Cybercrime?Learning About Cybercrime? Here’s Where to Start
How Cybercrime Works: Definitions & Overview
Cybercrime seems kinda abstract when you think about it as a group of hackers in the shadows. But, it’s a real threat to your business that can materialize in countless different ways.
Financial fraud, data theft, operational shutdowns… cybercrime can rear its head in any of these forms. Each comes with serious costs. And, if you’re doing a significant volume of business online, then it’s not a matter of if you’ll be targeted, but when.
Cybercrime
“Cybercrime” sounds futuristic and high-tech, but hackers have no end of tricks, techniques, and even resources to do a lot of damage in a short time. In this post, we look at cybercrime from your perspective: what it is, what it costs, how it works… and how to protect business now and down the road.
What is Cybercrime?
- Cybercrime
Cybercrime is any illegal activity that uses or targets a computer, computer network, or networked device to commit financial fraud, identity theft, data hacks, and other unlawful activities.
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“Cybercrime” is really an umbrella term for any illegal digital action taken against your company. And, since it’s an umbrella term, that means there can be wide-reaching consequences; anything from direct revenue losses to upset customers to complete business disruption.
It’s easier to see the scope here if we subdivide cybercrime into three main types:
Financial Crimes
Financial cybercrimes arguably have the most immediate impact. Fraudsters who get access to your systems can issue fake refunds, change shipping addresses, or even hijack an employee’s account to steal funds.
Examples: payment fraud, account takeovers, fake refund schemes
Data Crimes
Stored customer info can be a goldmine. If hackers can get to emails, passwords, or similar data, they can either use it to commit fraud, or sell it to other crooks, leaving you to face cashflow, liability, and compliance issues.
Examples: customer information theft, PCI compliance breaches, identity theft
Operational Crimes
Some cyber crimes target your entire operation. Ransomware can put your systems and data out of your reach, while DDoS attacks can sideline your website. You’ll not only lose sales outright, you’ll pay even more to get things resolved.
Examples: ransomware shutting down operations, DDoS attacks preventing sales, website defacement
Common Cybercrime Tactics
Suffice to say that these are real threats, and any one of them could cost you a bundle. In other words: you can’t afford to not take cybercrime seriously.
But, what specific cybercrime tactics do scammers typically use? I’ve outlined some common practices below:
- Phishing: Emails, allegedly from a trusted vendor or angry customer, designed to trick employees into clicking a malicious link or opening an attachment.
- Social Engineering: Attackers manipulate employees (typically by phone or chat) into revealing confidential info or performing unauthorized actions.
- eSkimming (Payment Pages): Crooks secretly embed malware into your checkout page. Customer payment details are then captured as they’re entered.
- Fake Merchant Applications: Cybercriminals pose as legitimate businesses to create accounts that can be used for fraud or money laundering.
- Business Email Compromise (BEC): Impersonating an executive or vendor, the criminal sends an email asking staff to send payments to a new (bogus) bank account.
- Supply Chain Attacks: Attackers gain access to your systems by exploiting security weaknesses in a vendor, partner, or another service provider.
