With online purchasing growing year on year, it seems to be excellent marketing strategy to get your business on the Internet, searchable and findable by all potential customers. Indeed, the first tip given to new businesses or established companies looking to strengthen their market position is to establish a strong and reputable online presence as soon as possible.
Along with the easy online purchasing process, and the ability to search through hundreds of similar companies at the click of a mouse, has come a new kind of crime wave. Cybercrime is growing rapidly throughout the world, and ranges from data mining to full-scale viral attacks. The problem for reputable companies arises in several different ways.
The first and most common one is for hackers to send emails to every available email address they can find; the email looks like genuine communications from a real business, asking for the customer to confirm their details. Out of every hundred people who get the email, perhaps most will be wary and delete the message without activating the link. Of the remaining few, only one needs to click through, to subject their device to malware, spyware, Trojan horses or any number of malicious pieces of software. Most of these will sit undetected on the device, quietly collating information and sending it back to the hacker. These pieces of software can be programmed to find contact lists, address books and so forth, sending these to the hacker, so he or she can then bombard all those people.
Another common trick is for criminals to set up clone sites; sites that look like they belong to the genuine company and offer the same products and services that the genuine company does. Unwary consumers may attempt to use the site to make a payment or action a purchase, during the course of which transaction they may be tricked into handing over bank card information and personal information that can be used to open credit accounts and take out credit cards in their name.
The sale of credit card information is another wide-spread crime, one that can be based almost anywhere in the world (like a lot of these cybercrimes) making it almost impossible for law enforcement agencies to keep up with developments and greatly increasing the difficulty of ever catching the criminals.
Some hacking activity is that of disenfranchised people, usually young men, who access secure sites and leave messages, or ‘tag’ the site in some way to prove that they were there. The intent may be simply to prove themselves to friends and fellow hackers, but like real-life vandalism, cyber vandalism can be expensive to fix, annoying and cause customers to lose faith in the security of a site.
Many new businesses and enterprises are launching themselves straight onto the Internet, making use of Cloud computing and eschewing the expense of an office base altogether. There are different services available, www.netnames.com for instance, to protect these fledgling companies, and any business that wishes to retain the integrity of their brand online. These companies are well versed and completely up to date with the tricks that hackers and cybercriminals use and can help you to keep your brand, and your good name, safe online.
Along with the easy online purchasing process, and the ability to search through hundreds of similar companies at the click of a mouse, has come a new kind of crime wave. Cybercrime is growing rapidly throughout the world, and ranges from data mining to full-scale viral attacks. The problem for reputable companies arises in several different ways.
The first and most common one is for hackers to send emails to every available email address they can find; the email looks like genuine communications from a real business, asking for the customer to confirm their details. Out of every hundred people who get the email, perhaps most will be wary and delete the message without activating the link. Of the remaining few, only one needs to click through, to subject their device to malware, spyware, Trojan horses or any number of malicious pieces of software. Most of these will sit undetected on the device, quietly collating information and sending it back to the hacker. These pieces of software can be programmed to find contact lists, address books and so forth, sending these to the hacker, so he or she can then bombard all those people.
Another common trick is for criminals to set up clone sites; sites that look like they belong to the genuine company and offer the same products and services that the genuine company does. Unwary consumers may attempt to use the site to make a payment or action a purchase, during the course of which transaction they may be tricked into handing over bank card information and personal information that can be used to open credit accounts and take out credit cards in their name.
The sale of credit card information is another wide-spread crime, one that can be based almost anywhere in the world (like a lot of these cybercrimes) making it almost impossible for law enforcement agencies to keep up with developments and greatly increasing the difficulty of ever catching the criminals.
Some hacking activity is that of disenfranchised people, usually young men, who access secure sites and leave messages, or ‘tag’ the site in some way to prove that they were there. The intent may be simply to prove themselves to friends and fellow hackers, but like real-life vandalism, cyber vandalism can be expensive to fix, annoying and cause customers to lose faith in the security of a site.
Many new businesses and enterprises are launching themselves straight onto the Internet, making use of Cloud computing and eschewing the expense of an office base altogether. There are different services available, www.netnames.com for instance, to protect these fledgling companies, and any business that wishes to retain the integrity of their brand online. These companies are well versed and completely up to date with the tricks that hackers and cybercriminals use and can help you to keep your brand, and your good name, safe online.
0 comments:
Post a Comment