Tag: cyber-crime

  • How a phishing scam swindled this Shark Tank host out of $400,000

    How a phishing scam swindled this Shark Tank host out of $400,000

    We’ve focused a lot of articles on phishing scams and how no one is immune, even major money moguls like Barbara Corcoran from ABC’s Shark Tank with a net worth estimated at over $100 million fell victim to a phishing scam that wound up costing her $400,000.

    Business owners are a particularly lucrative target for bad actors, and phishing emails continue to grow more sophisticated. In this instance Barbara reports receiving an email that looked like it came from her secretary going to her accountant authorizing the amount to go to a real estate deal.

    Barbara like many business owners has deals going on all the time so the amount and type of authorization wasn’t unusual, allowing it to fly under everyone’s noses and make the scammers involved $400,000 richer. It wasn’t until her accountant sent an email to her real secretary confirming the transaction one last time that the scam was uncovered – and by then it was too late the transfer had already been sent.

    This case proves that even with strong checks and balances in place, phishing scams can happen to almost anyone. While Barbara was able to absorb the hit without it hurting her business – many out there could not.

    While the amount of money lost in this instance is quite substantial, millions of dollars are lost every day to cyber crime. It’s estimated that $1,797,945 is lost per minute according to Risk IQ’s Evil Internet Minute Report.

    Even if you think your business is too small to be a target you would be wrong, scammers cast wide nets looking for victims to fall in. Here are 4 things you can have in place that could prevent this kind of scam from happening to you.

    Email Best Practices

    Even with these checks in place it can still be tricky to avoid, especially if your business has become a particular target for a scammer. Another famous example is how Facebook and Google were tricked out of $100 million due to an extended attack phishing attack organized by a scammer located in Lithuania. A little less than half of the money lost was recovered.

    Another famous attack in 2014 saw the early release of four movies produced by Sony Pictures when North Korean hackers, upset about a movie that was being released at the time, sent targeted phishing emails that appeared as if they were coming from Apple to a top Sony executive. The damage that incurred from this attack was estimated to be over $80 million.

    With both of these attacks it’s not just about the money lost either, these attacks are easily searchable to this day and had an untold effect on their reputation at the time. Massive companies like Google, Facebook and Sony can weather the storm, but could your business do the same?

    Education is just one piece of the puzzle, active protection is another crucial element to avoiding the lengthy damage that can arise from a successful phishing campaign. At Valley Techlogic cyber security is a core focus for all of our plans. Learn more today with a quick and easy consultation.

    Looking for more to read? We suggest these other articles from our site.

    This article was powered by Valley TechLogic, an IT service provider in Atwater, CA. You can find more information at https://www.valleytechlogic.com/ or on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/valleytechlogic/ . Follow us on Twitter at https://x.com/valleytechlogic.

  • How much are you worth on the Dark Web?

    How much are you worth on the Dark Web?

    Not you specifically, but the data that makes up your online activities and private details? What about your various web accounts, for example did you know a hacked Netflix account with 12 months of service is worth $44 on the Dark Web as of 2021?

    We know the Dark Web is a nebulous concept and most of the people we talk to really don’t feel as though it has much to do with them. There’s even those that have resigned themselves to the fact their data is just “out there”, but take solace that in the flux of so many people who experience identify theft (1, 387, 615 reported cases in 2020) there’s just no way a hacker would ever reach them personally.

    If you’re a business owner this is of course, a crock of baloney. While there are many business owners in the US, their numbers pale in comparison to the vast swafts of people who don’t own a business and thereby don’t have valuable employee and financial data within their purview. The fact is by simply owning a business, you’re more vulnerable to being a target of identity theft.

    Business identity theft and consumer identity theft typically occur with the same goal in mind, financial gain for the bad actor. However, business identity theft carries a much larger trickle-down effect. It’s not only your own data that’s at risk, there’s also that of your employees and your business itself.

    Business size doesn’t affect the rate at which you’ll be targeted either, in fact during the COVID pandemic, business identity theft soared across the board.

    This all leads us back to what hackers hope to gain and what your financial data and other pertinent details and accounts are really worth on the dark web, we’ve created this chart with some notable items, but you can find the whole list for 2021 here:

    Click to grab the full size version.

    As the website above states, the quantity of these items found on the dark web also has grown considerably in the last year. It’s predicted cyber theft will cost the world $10.5 trillion annually by 2025. Cyber crime is more profitable than the global drug trade at this point in time.

    So instead of thinking “it won’t happen to me” you should begin considering what you will do when it does happen to you, or even better – what you can do to stop it.

    For instance, at Valley Techlogic we provide all of our customers with Dark Web Monitoring as a routine part of their services with us.

    Dark web monitoring won’t stop your details from being leaked but it will help you monitor and prevent further damage. If your credentials are made available to hackers and you’re aware of it, it’s a lot easier to change them ahead of any damage being done to your accounts and systems.

    You can also partner with an IT provider who has a cyber security stack that exceeds what you could procure on your own. This allows you to take advantage of a robust cyber security package without trying to manage and absorb the cost yourself, allowing you to protect your business and even save money.

    Finally, your provider can help you comply with a cybersecurity framework recommended by the US government, such as NIST or CMMC. This will offer you the best most comprehensive protection from business identity theft.

    Valley Techlogic can assist you with all of these recommended cybersecurity practices. Learn more by taking a quick 10 minute discovery call with one of our tech experts.

    Looking for more to read? We suggest these other articles from our site.

    This article was powered by Valley TechLogic, an IT service provider in Atwater, CA. You can find more information at https://www.valleytechlogic.com/ or on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/valleytechlogic/ . Follow us on Twitter at https://x.com/valleytechlogic.