The UK Government has published a report revealing that more than half of UK businesses have been targeted by cyber-attacks in the last 12 months, using common hacking methods including fraudulent emails, attempts by scammers to impersonate the organisation online, viruses and malware.
The survey included finance and insurance companies, as well as the charitable sector for the first time, with one in five (19 percent) being targeted by fraudsters and hackers.
Fabien Libeau, EMEA VP at Risk IQ, the digital threat management specialist, comments on the UK Government survey and how organisations need complete control and visibility over the threat to their brand:
“As businesses move online, this Government report highlights the growing risk surrounding corporate digital assets – across mobile, social and web – that are still too often overlooked. For organisations, their brand is one of the biggest and most valuable assets – but it is also the biggest attack vector for opportunistic cybercriminals.
“As seen with this report, threat actors are exploiting brand trust to defraud an organisation’s customers, partners, and prospects through phishing, malware, and online impersonation. Brands, particularly in the financial and chartable sectors, cannot afford to ignore – or fail to detect – these common attack techniques. As such, digital threat management needs to become a critical component of corporate security strategies. Organisations should be investing in technologies that boost visibility into fraudulent and unofficial websites, as well as identifies fake social media accounts that impersonate the company, its brand or executives. In addition, it is critical to use automated technology to understand exactly when and where company logos are being used across partner or competitor sites.
“When cybercriminals impersonate brands on the internet and mobile app ecosystem, they not only jeopardise customer security, but they can do serious reputational damage to the organisation. Our recent benchmarking survey found that 83 percent of respondents were able to discover previously unknown internet-facing assets with digital threat management technology. By having complete visibility. control and amazing support over all digital channels, organisations will be able to spot suspicious activity immediately. It’s this that will keep the Government figures down and help more organisations avoid the reputational and financial repercussions of an attack.”
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