Cyber-attacks becoming more common

There have been many recent cyber-attacks on public and private sector firms, which have bought fear to many UK companies that this may happen to them too. It is believed that the individuals who are attach company IT systems are professional fraudsters and criminal groups. Companies do need to be wary of other activists or hobbyist hackers who may also launch an attack.

Individuals in the technology sector were most worried about the theft of competitive bid information and intellectual property. On the other hand, organisations in the financial market are more worried about reputational damage, interruptions of service for customers and loss of customer data. This is why most financial institutions will advertise financial crime jobs for employees who will be solely responsible for investigating any fraud or criminal incidents.

With so much time being spent on the internet, then individuals are more at risk of a cyber-attack. Social networking platforms such as Facebook or twitter provide an insight into what type of person the individual who uses them is. A criminal can determine many things from these platforms, such as whether you are male or female, where you live, who you live with. Posting a Facebook status that clearly states you will be out of the house for the evening is setting that individual up to be targeted.

Identity theft is a huge part of cybercrime and criminals can get ‘secure’ online accounts and withdraw money from the bank or perform various other illegal actions. This not only costs the individual a lot of money and time but it will also affect the bank’s reputation which can be detrimental for the organisation. There is a large number of methods on how to carry out a cyber-attack and these will constantly be evolving and strengthening. For those in charge of the IT security for a company or website it can be a tough, yet interesting industry to work in. They will need to keep up to date with the various ways that information and a site could be penetrated. To find jobs within financial crime, it security go to www.Barclaysimpson.com.