We need to talk about cybercrime

This isn’t a topic that is often talked about until it’s too late. If the door on your office wasn’t closing properly, it would be addressed instantly. If a CCTV camera feed went out, you’d investigate straight away but online protection seems to be the elephant in the room.

Perhaps it’s because most people don’t feel they’re tech savvy enough to have that conversation. No one wants to look like the “boomer” in the room so we tiptoe around the subject, but with 2020’s events forcing the workforce to shift to various remote working models, businesses can no longer afford to avoid the topic.

Here’s some good news - if you don’t really understand threats in the digital world, you’re not alone. In fact, most people don’t really understand cybersecurity. Most people know the terms like malware, hack, phishing, end-to-end encryption, etc; but very few people understand what all that means.

Ask someone you know, “How does end-to-end encryption protect against a sophisticated phishing attack and how can you defend against social engineering?” and you’ll find most of us are stumbling around in the dark.

Hackers could answer those questions though. They could most likely tell you a whole host of workarounds to the solutions as well.

The world has never been more suited to hackers. People all over the world have been forced into remote working scenarios regardless of computing ability. They’re being made to adapt quickly to the world of remote teams, Zoom meetings and VPN’s without “lunch room learning” to help them adapt as they would to a new technology in a traditional office setting.

Hackers have lived in this world for years. Through online message boards like 4chan, they’ve connected with likeminded cybercriminals all around the world allowing them to share knowledge, develop new tools and even coordinate cyberattacks.

Those familiar with these sites have often remarked that the users appear to operate with a hive mind mentality when launching attacks. Some attacks are done for traditional financial gain but often, these cyberterrorists will attack a high security target purely to see if they can. 4chan hackers were responsible for the iCloud photo leak when thousands of private photos, including nudes, from celebrity iCloud accounts were posted online.

They’ve also hacked politicians’ emails and even caused Apple stock prices to plummet. In today’s world, cybercrime is organised and the rest of us are scrambling to just keep up.

SonicWall are network specialists that know exactly what threats are faced and the outlook isn’t good. Data collected from SonicWall threat protection software found malware variants increased 62% in 2020 and instances of malicious office files being detected were up 172%. There’s no reason to expect those numbers to not rise even higher in 2021.

SonicWall collects data from 214 countries and uses deep learning AI to respond rapidly to emerging threats which ensures 80% of cyberattacks are resolved in 2 seconds. SonicWall has several advanced features that use AI to protect against the most evasive threats, allowing you to analyse captured threats in a quarantined environment, as well as see what threats are trying to compromise in real time.

SonicWall also believe in sharing their knowledge to make everyone safer and host webinars to help customers understand cybersecurity better.

You may not ever be as savvy as the cybercriminals but with SonicWall you can be sure you’ve got the best protection possible so you can get back to business.

Hills is an official supplier of SonicWall network solutions. To learn more visit Hills.co.nz or connect with Hills Strategic Business Development Manager, Paulo directly on Paulo. Jorge@hills.co.nz. This is such a hot topic stay tuned for more to come.