Online crime continues to fuel cybersecurity

Article Excerpt

Hackers, organized crime, and even state-sponsored actors are increasingly targeting government and business infrastructure as well as individuals to gain access to confidential information. The list of targets is endless but any entity that is digitally connected is vulnerable. Online transactions, commercial supply management and payment systems, energy infrastructure, medical records, credit card numbers, passwords, tax data, and intellectual property are potential targets of cybercriminals. A growing threat With the increasing use of digital files and the reliance on digital data by governments, corporations and individuals, data breaches have become common in the past decade. Attacks on individuals include stealing bank account and credit card details while corporations are targeted to obtain client records and business secrets. Critical infrastructure such as utilities and hospitals are also increasingly attacked in order to extract ransom payments from the owners. In March 2021, Facebook lost 533 million client records in 106 countries; this followed another breach in 2019 when 420 million user records, including phone numbers, and…