What are cyber security crimes and scams?
Cyber security crimes and scams have been rampant recently and it has rose by 13% in this year alone in Australia. Among the top industries that are affected by cyber security breaches in Australia include, financial services, education, and healthcare, mainly due to their vast and valuable data that they have. Examples of cyber security crimes include, identity theft, phishing, ransomware, distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack and so on.
Identity theft occurs when an attacker uses another person’s personal identifying information such as their name, credit card credentials, identification number without the owner’s consent to commit fraud or other crimes. On the other hand, phishing is a form of social engineering where fraudulent emails or text messages that resemble those from reputable sources are sent with the intent to fool consumers. Ransomware is a type of malware that can be installed on a system that enables an attacker to lock the victim’s computer system files through encryption. Lastly, distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks are set up by attackers in which multiple systems are used to disrupt the traffic of a targeted system such as the server, website, or other network resources.
Real life examples of cyber security crimes and scams
Back in 2021, Macquarie Health, a private healthcare service corporation based in New South Wales, Australia, had to take a drastic shift in operations after they experienced a massive cyberattack. Macquarie Health group runs 12 hospitals across the Eastern seaboard of Australia. Over 6700 patients private information containing legal and sensitive data were leaked on the dark web. Even days later, Macquarie Health still had no information regarding the cyberattack and they had to suffer significant impacts as a result of this cyberattack.
Earlier in 2021, another healthcare company based in Queensland, Australia, known as UnitingCare Queensland was also hit by a ransomware attack which led the company to shift towards offline, paper-based operations. This ransomware attack has disrupted their online operations and they were only able to go back online after almost a month of undergoing offline operations.
How to prevent getting scam by messages and phishing websites?
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