When, on our travels through the internet, we're asked to enter a password in order to protect our private information, many of us actually enjoy the process of choosing one. After all, whatever sequence of letters and numbers you end up choosing must surely be unguessable for any would-be hacker. All the more so if you take your sister's birthday in reverse and add to it the initials of your paternal grandfather.
Unfortunately, the data guarded behind such passwords is not nearly as safe as we believe it to be. According to one cybersecurity expert, even a mediocre computer hacker working with basic equipment could crack an eight-character random password with upper- and lower-case letters, numbers, and symbols within about eight hours. If the password is only six characters long, he could crack it almost instantly. How do they pull this off? It's through persistent and focused guessing, which computers do by attempting hundreds of options per second while giving priority to certain likely combinations.
Compromised and guessed passwords are just one of the loopholes criminals can use to access your personal information and potentially steal your money, whether you're an individual or a business. Cybercrime is such a prevalent and growing problem that, by next year, the global economy will have to spend $10.5 trillion annually to fend it off. Take a break from your online trading to find out about this trend, which looks set to impact the economic landscape of the near-term future significantly.
BEC Attacks
Criminals who mount BEC (Business Email Compromise) attacks pretend to be company executives and send emails to current staff. In these emails, they request that employees send funds or data to particular locations, from where it is then stolen. In May 2016, fraudsters posing as Walter Stephan, the CEO of aerospace parts company FACC, sent an email to an employee, asking him to transfer a large sum of money to an account for the purposes of making a company acquisition. The results were that FACC lost the enormous sum of $47 million dollars to the thieves and that Stephan was summarily dismissed from his post. These kinds of attacks are pernicious because they can erode customers' trust in the company and, in that way, cause them lasting damage.
Cyberattacks of the Future
Another category of cyberattacks, called social engineering crime, works by tricking people into downloading malware (malicious software) or sending money to bank accounts. The extremely common tactic of phishing involves the sending of fraudulent emails that ask the receiver to click on a hyperlink or an attachment, which then opens up a path for malware to enter into their computer system. Cybersecurity experts are alert to the fact that AI (artificial intelligence) could augment the effectiveness of these attacks significantly. With the use of deepfake technology or specialized malware that alters itself to avoid being detected, this sort of threat could become more dangerous. AI is likely to offer criminals heightened expertise in personalizing their overtures to unsuspecting victims.
However, AI is a double-edged sword and has the potential to beef up our cybersecurity too. AI's unique talents can be used to discover and eliminate cyberthreats before they can do any damage. AI can also sharpen up our customer authentication protocols by putting them into real-time.
Rolling Ahead
Leaders in the field of cybersecurity are developing protective mechanisms that companies can use to reduce the danger of these threats. IBM offers businesses formidable data security platforms as well as data loss protection tools, which encrypt and monitor sensitive information. They also promote incident response teams, who stand ready to investigate possible threats actively. AI is used as part of the arsenal they use against cybercrime, so their approach could set a standard for other companies to follow in the future.
The late trend to work from home may pose unique challenges in the area of cybersecurity, especially if staff members share data across poorly protected devices. It can make a positive difference when employees are trained to recognize the threat of phishing and take proper precautions against it. When it comes to passwords, the professionals suggest you always choose one consisting of at least 11 characters and that it should be as complex as possible. This can offer you considerably more protection than shorter or simpler passwords do.
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