Since 2013, an incredible nine billion data records were lost or stolen due to breaches.<\/a><\/p>\nTo make matters worse, only 4% of those breaches were \u201csecure breaches,\u201d meaning that some or all of the data that was stolen was encrypted by hackers, and ultimately rendered useless.<\/p>\n
When you break down these statistics, the situation looks dire. It\u2019s estimated that: <\/strong><\/p>\n\n2 million records are lost to hackers every day,<\/strong><\/li>\n219,000 per hour, <\/strong><\/li>\n3,600 records a minute, and <\/strong><\/li>\n61 records per second. <\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\nBy the time you get to the end of this sentence, approximately 305 sensitive documents have been compromised online.<\/strong><\/p>\nHow\u2019s that for putting things into perspective?<\/h2>\n This is all from the work of everyday hackers\u2014And, not sophisticated criminal organizations like something out of a James Bond film. The truth is rarely that \u201csexy\u201d regardless of how much we want it to be.<\/p>\n
The Curse of the Everyday Hacker<\/h2>\n Thanks largely to feature films and television shows that glorify hacking, a wide range of myths prevail around the people who are online daily trying to do you harm. These aren\u2019t creepy criminals who operate from some secret, underground fortress \u2013 Most of them are working out of their homes or offices. \u00a0They may even be in your neighborhood!<\/p>\n
These everyday hackers aren\u2019t trying to break into the computer systems of world governments.\u00a0 They\u2019re just trying to figure out your credit card PIN numbers.<\/strong><\/p>\nThey also don\u2019t spend months targeting any one victim, pouring over key details until they identify exactly the right piece of info they need to get the results they want. Sadly, they\u2019re far more opportunistic than that\u2014They usually try anything and everything, \u201cthrowing it all at the wall to see what sticks.\u201d Unfortunately, more often than not, this is much easier than it even sounds.<\/p>\n
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Enterprise and business users must realize that these everyday hackers are the true threats to must protect against. It\u2019s everyday people who are working hard to get into your business.<\/strong><\/p>\nWorst of all, many businesses don\u2019t prioritize cyber security efforts.\u00a0 This is just like handing over the keys to your safe.<\/strong>\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\nEducate Your Employees About Using Strong Passwords.<\/h2>\n One of the most common methods everyday hackers exploit are weak passwords. Your employees are probably using some right now. This sounds incredibly basic, but it\u2019s also frustratingly true\u2014Employee education must be a top priority. Teach them the difference between a strong password and a weak one. And make sure they understand the very real consequences that come from the latter.<\/p>\n
Update Your Outdated Systems.<\/h2>\n Outdated systems are another favorite of everyday hackers. Take Windows XP for example. For a while, it was one of the most widely used operating systems in history\u2014Your own company probably spent years using XP.<\/p>\n
Even if you still love it, and it does what you need, it\u2019s imperative that you upgrade to something more modern like Windows 7 or (better yet) Windows 10.<\/p>\n
Outdated operating systems like Windows XP are no longer supported, which means that as soon as a new vulnerability is identified your entire system could be easily compromised. Plus, Microsoft will no longer be releasing security updates to fix these problems.<\/strong><\/p>\nRansomware is a favorite of everyday hackers in large part because of its simplicity and effectiveness. Viruses may seem complex, but in reality, they\u2019re not. Ransomware is easy to write and even easier to execute\u2013All you have to do is trick someone with the right security credentials into downloading and installing a file on their computer.<\/p>\n
Once the file is executed on their machine, the hacker has literally every kilobyte of data at his or her disposal \u2013 and they can ask for whatever they want to give it back (or not).<\/p>\n
The old saying, \u201ccrime doesn\u2019t pay\u201d proves false when it comes to everyday hackers. These are the people you need to be worried about\u2014the ones your security policies should be designed to keep out.<\/p>\n
Cybersecurity is one of the most pressing issues of the common era\u2014The best thing we can do is to learn as much as we can about the dangers we\u2019re up against. If you think that \u201csuper hackers\u201d or sophisticated people with unparalleled skill are the only ones you need to worry about, think again. Everyday hackers are just as dangerous, if not more, so because they\u2019re right here among us, and much more difficult to detect.<\/p>\n
If your business is in {city} and you\u2019d like to learn more about this or other cybersecurity and IT-related topics, please don\u2019t delay. Contact {company} at {phone} or {email}. We\u2019re ready and waiting to do whatever we can to help.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Everyday hackers are among the most pressing threat your business faces today. Are your protections in place? The current cybersecurity situation plaguing businesses worldwide is a lot more dangerous than we previously realized.\u00a0 Since 2013, an incredible nine billion data records were lost or stolen due to breaches. To make matters worse, only 4% of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":158392,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-179250","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
Did You Know That Everyday Hackers Are a Huge Threat to Your Business? - IT Services in Virginia<\/title>\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n\t \n\t \n\t \n