Cybercrime refers to any criminal activity that exploits the use of computers and networks to access, transmit and steal private data. It targets victims from individuals to large corporations through various forms of phishing and illicit installations of malware. Some common types of cybercrime include email frauds, phone and text scams.
Protecting your business from cybercrime
The ongoing digitalisation of the banking industry plays a vital role in business growth, but it also brings risk. Being aware of the various forms of this evolving threat and implementing precautionary measures can help reduce the impact on your business.
What is cybercrime?
The consequences of cybercrime include:
- financial loss
- ransomed data
- reputational damage
The criminals behind cybercrime
While the majority of criminals have quite basic technical capabilities, attacks are increasingly enabled by sophisticated tools available in the online criminal marketplace. With some criminal groups even industrialising their activities, cybercrime is evolving and growing fast.
Find out more about Protecting your business from cybercrime
Phishing
One of the most common forms of cyberattack, bank phishing operates through emails, calls and texts, which are often convincing and appear to come from legitimate senders.
Malware
Short for ‘malicious software’, malware is coded with the intention of stealing confidential information from individuals and businesses. Once it breaches a computer or network, it can also spy on internet activity and damage data. An increasingly common form of attack is the fraudulent redirection of internet banking users.
Business email compromise
Also known as CEO/Chairman fraud, business email compromise is one of the emerging forms of cybercrime that is frequently targeted at SMEs. It combines the techniques of malware and phishing to trick users into revealing confidential business information, leading to huge financial damage.
Text and phone scams
This form of fraud spoofs the contact details and websites of legitimate sources to trick targets into making payments or revealing confidential information. Scam calls and texts are often referred to as ‘vishing’ (voice phishing) and ‘smishing’ (SMS phishing) respectively.
