Millions lost by businesses to cybercriminals
Businesses and organisations are being targeted for large sums of money by cybercriminals, according to the latest report released by the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC).
A total of $7.8 million was lost by New Zealanders to cyber criminals in the first quarter of this year.
Around $5m of the total reported losses were to unauthorised money transfers, or business email compromise.
“A business email compromise is a targeted attack where an attacker tries to gain access to an organisations legitimate email account, and they can send invoices to clients with altered invoice account numbers,” says NCSC spokesperson Mike Jagusch.
There were 10 incidents where more than $100k was lost, and 95% of reported loss came from amounts of $10,000 and over.
“We know cybercriminals will target anyone with money or information. But in this quarter, more than half the reported losses were to businesses,” Jagusch says.
“Attackers are increasingly targeting businesses like law firms and real estate agencies, where large financial transactions are common.”
Own Your Online has information for businesses on common threats and how to spot them.
You can read more about the Quarterly Insights Report.