At the end of 2017, Symantec released their 2017 Norton Cyber Security Insights Report, revealing that victims of cybercrime lost a whopping 172 billion dollars globally and almost 20 billion along in the United States. Through an examination of the report, it appears that many consumers fall victim to cybercrime because they have too much trust in their current processes and do not see cybercrime as a legitimate threat.
Overconfidence
Flashy technological protection has created a false sense of security for many consumers. Now that the general public has access to technology like facial recognition and thumbprint security, a lot of people are skipping simple, yet essential security measures. Fewer consumers are equipping their devices with anti-virus software and trusting manufactures to create technology to withstand cyber-attacks. Many still use duplicate passwords across their online accounts, making them vulnerable to lost data through countless accounts. People are still falling victim to spam emails, opening links and downloading files from hackers and spammers. Though we have been using technology long enough that these errors should now be widely avoided, they are all common errors made by consumers.
Cybercrime Affects More Than Individuals
Cybercrime is not only a threat to an individual’s personal information and data, but it is a significant threat to businesses. With the danger and costs associated with cybercrime on the rise, it is crucial that business owners consider their preparedness for a cyber-attack. Many companies have switched from local storage to Cloud providers to protect and back up their business’ essential data, files, and information. While Cloud providers offer easy access to files throughout your business, those files are much more at risk to hackers than if they were saved on a local server.
Saving your data on a local server will give you the freedom to monitor your server’s performance and can provide you with peace of mind from the threats that come with Cloud storage. Some programs and options give access to files and information from remote locations, like a Virtual Private Network, where you can access data as if you were working from your desk at work. So just because you don’t use the Cloud, it doesn’t mean you can’t access documents from your local storage.
Contact Allen Business Machines today to check out all the security measures available for your business’ precious data!