Privacy, Security & Virus Information

Rising Cybercrime Is Estimated To Be Costing UK Citizens Around £10 Billion A Year

A sharp rise in hacking attacks is costing UK businesses and individuals more than £10 billion a year, twice what it cost in 2008, showing a sharp reversal of cyber crime that were considered under control not so long ago, yet are now becoming an increasingly problematic and expensive issue.

A recent survey has shown that nine out of ten British businesses were victims of some form of attempt to breach their cyber security in the last twelve months. The damage caused to companies who were victims of by cyber attacks has been put at around £10 billion, while it is impossible to gauge exactly how much similar attacks cost the public. When this figure is compared to the few million pounds that the majority of companies who were sensible enough to invest in professional anti-virus protection, then in today's world where the cyber criminal is on a constant look-out for security breaches to invade, it is almost totally irresponsible for companies and private individuals not to invest in the best anti-virus software they can find.

In the last few years, cybercrime has evolved into a booming global business. Viruses, malware and Trojan horses have advanced in sophistication as fast as the computer software industry itself. Make no mistake that computer hacking in all of its formats has become a major economy, whose target is "real world". The hacking community has targeted attacks against financial institutions, business and even government agencies, in both Europe and the US.

To show how callous and uncaring there cyber-criminals are, just this week computers belonging to the UK's National Health Service were victims of a data-stealing malware attack, although, at this stage, it is not certain that patient information was stolen.

The computers were infiltrated by a malware known as Qakbot that is capable of stealing credit card information, passwords and other sensitive data from data bases. This type of attack is becoming increasingly common place, and the only way that business, institutions and UK families can protect their information is by fighting fire with fire. By installing the most powerful and sophisticated anti-virus software they can find. It has been proven time and time again that low cost or even free shareware anti-virus software is not capable of providing anything near the level of protection to fight of the cyber criminals. Investing in the proper software is the best investment you can make.

 

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