Three cybercrime victims — you, your business, and your government. Simple steps to avoid being that victim.

Against individuals: The reason for this cybercrime attack is to get the person’s bank information, personal physical health information, or hack the victim’s computer for disseminating spam or denial-of-service (DOS). One of the most disastrous crimes on individuals is ‘identity theft’. An individual’s personally identifiable information (PII) such as social security number or date of birth and use of that information to obtain loans or commit other nefarious acts can affect an individual’s credit report and personal identity. Generally, it takes years to get back on track.

Against businesses:  Businesses should be worried about protecting the PII of their customers. Businesses need to remember that it costs a whole lot more to deal with the after effects of a hack of their customers’ information, than putting data security controls in place prior to an incident. Losing customer trust can cost their business’s survival. Loss of business intelligence and data can end up being unrecoverable.

Against Governments: Cybercrime attacks against a government means attack against the entire country. Challenges are similar to what individuals or businesses face except they are at a national level and magnified several times. The attacks can affect the country’s military, communication, infrastructure, power and other channels.

What do you do to limit these attacks?

1. Limit the information that you give out.
2. Do not register or enter email addresses on websites to read information that they provide.
3. Do not open attachments sent via emails unless you trust the source.
4. To take it a step further, use email encryption or digital signatures.
5. Resist clicking on hyperlinks. Clicking on dubious sites could result in the embedding of malware on your computer.
6. Do not download files from third-party sources. It will greatly reduce the risk of malware via Trojan horse version of a file, image, document, audio file, video, driver, plug-in or software update.
7. Do not use portable USB drives and flash cards. The chances of malware spreading are greater.
8. Do not use open wireless networks. Open wireless access points can trick you into connecting into a hacker-controlled wireless device. To avoid the problems with open wireless networks, you can either get your own portable Internet service or use a secure Virtual Private Network connection.

It is important to be wary of hack cybercrime attacks and the precautions to take to protect your information. The above tips can help you. If you need further assistance for safeguarding your data, personal information, customer information or your organization’s network environment, call us.

Omega can help you with your data security needs.  Phone 636-557-7777 or email Security@OmegaSecure.com.