It’s not likely to come as a big surprise that cybercrime is a serious risk to today’s computer user. It’s a booming industry, and it’s not hard to understand why. After all, it’s fairly easy money – in most cases, the hacker doesn’t even need to get directly involved in the breach. They can deploy malware that collects the data for them.

It’s sort of like Passive Income for Criminals 101, and it’s very profitable. The problem is that not everyone realizes the myriad risks that we could face when we boot up our computers. That’s why EveryCloud decided to compile the information that you’ll see below. It’s an eye-opener for sure, so let’s go through it section by section.

The Most Expensive Data Breaches in History

If you thought that hackers were small-time, think again. Naturally, you get petty crooks and big players. The criminals that pulled off the hacks listed above fall into the latter category.

Biggest User Breaches in This Century

As you can see, the best hackers expose the data of millions of people, not just a paltry few hundred or thousand here and there.

The Best Known Hackers

These guys are truly in a class of their own. Mitnik showed some serious skills by hacking NASA, and several mobile provider networks. That’s only a small portion of what we know about. Bogachev will go down in history as the creator of one the deadliest botnets in history.

Cyber-Security and Small to Medium Businesses

There are a lot of enduring myths out there when it comes to small business and cybersecurity. The idea that a business is too small to target is one of the most dangerous of these. Especially when you keep in mind that 43% of all cybercrime is aimed at smaller enterprises.

Business Impact of Endpoint Cybercrime

A successful breach can be extremely damaging for businesses in general. There is more than just the financial loss to take in consideration. Companies also have to contend with fines that may be imposed and have to work on repairing their reputation afterward. Recovery may not even be possible.

Tips for SMBs

Did the previous section scare you? Good. That was the bad news. The good news is that you can do a lot to protect your company by conducting security awareness training and by ensuring that all software is up to date.

You can limit the potential damage by backing up data regularly and limiting the amount of access that employees have to sensitive data.

Individuals and Cybersecurity

Businesses are not the only ones that need to keep a careful eye on online security. Individuals are just as much at risk and phishers are getting more sophisticated. 97% of people cannot differentiate between a good phishing email and a legitimate email from the company.

Good phishers don’t make handy spelling mistakes or badly-worded emails that could trip them up.

And, when it comes to password security, a lot of us make the same mistakes. We:

• Make the passwords too short and easy. Don’t feel too bad about this one, though. Even Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg is guilty here. His Facebook password, until the breach of 2016, was “Dadada.”
• We use the same passwords for everything.
• We don’t change our passwords often enough.

Popular Security Myths Busted

There are a few enduring myths out there that may leave users complacent about security. There is no such thing as a firewall that can always protect you against every threat. Security experts add safety measures, and criminals look for ways around them. It’s the way the game is played.

Government’s Action

Governments have been taking a tougher stance against cybercrime by placing more responsibility on companies to secure their data. If a company is in violation of these rules, they face serious penalties.