There has been an alarming increase in cyber-crime incidents being reported this year by international monitoring institutions such as the Internet Crime Compliant Centre (IC3) and Messagelabs Intelligence.
Eben Louw, forensics manager, KPMG, comments that the statistics in May 2010 highlight an increase in identity and information theft made possible by phishing (1 in every 237 e-mails), spam (90%), spoofing and spyware. This was assisted by Soccer World Cup Themed Malware. “Cyber-crime is an attack that originates from or is facilitated by a computer or network system on another computer or network system. It’s a very “clean” and “sophisticated” method of committing a serious crime.”
He explains that more people are sharing sensitive information on social websites like Facebook that currently boasts more than 400 million users and Linkedin with more than 70 million users. Sensitive information can be used by Cyber-criminals to commit identity fraud and eventually steal money from a user.
Louw warns that cyber-crime is not just a buzz word but truly an attack by serious criminals! “Our only defense is secure systems, continuous monitoring applications, trusted staff, proper awareness and educational programs”.