In previous posts, I’ve explained how cybercrime is big business (link to post # 1), and the criminals behind the illegal activity run sophisticated online companies. Today, let’s begin talking about how to defend your company against them. We’ll start with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the de facto data security and privacy enforcement authority in the United States.
In recent weeks I’ve been talking about the cost to business of cyber theft and the Millennial Mobster. Today’s reality is savvy international businesses make up the majority of cybercriminals. This blog post is the final week of background information before we jump into the practical side of managing your cyber risk in this series called The Anatomy of a Hack.
In Part 1 I highlighted the size and pace of growth in cyber crime and introduced you to the Millennial Mobster. We are in The Internet Age of Criminals. I explained that the typical hacker is not who our media portrays in films and on television. In fact, these global gangsters and gangs responsible for the massive crimes committed online each year, run highly organized, extremely sophisticated organizations that are sometimes backed by their own foreign government.
In 2015 the global cost of cybersecurity failures was five hundred billion dollars. In 2018 the cost is expected to reach two trillion dollars. And, amazingly, that number is predicted to hit six trillion dollars by the year 2021.
Small to midsize businesses can often find themselves in a tough spot when it comes to the freight market. Low volume often means less purchasing power, meaning these businesses are often left to the discretion (and rates) of the carriers and brokers they negotiate with. As a result, these businesses can often find themselves losing out on business or even losing customers to their larger competitors simply due to the higher freight costs. Additionally, the lack of purchasing power means a lower margin on the products they are able to sell due to the higher receiving costs from suppliers.
