The true cost of cybercrime
Hey! Looks like you have stumbled on the section of our website where we have archived articles from our old business model.
In 2019 the original founding team returned to run Next Investors, we changed our business model to only write about stocks we carefully research and are invested in for the long term.
The below articles were written under our previous business model. We have kept these articles online here for your reference.
Our new mission is to build a high performing ASX micro cap investment portfolio and share our research, analysis and investment strategy with our readers.
Click Here to View Latest Articles
With cyberattacks and online data breaches reported by Facebook, Google and British Airways, and the fallout of a huge attack on the UK’s National Health Service (NHS) now revealed, it seems tougher than ever to keep data safe.
In October, Google announced the closure of Google Plus after a security vulnerability exposed the private data of up to 500,000 users.
Early this year, Facebook acknowledged that Cambridge Analytica, a British research organization that performed work for the Trump campaign, had improperly gained access to the personal information of up to 87 million Facebook users.
Then in September, the social media goliath revealed attackers exploited a vulnerability relating to its ‘view as’ feature. Out of the 50 million people initially thought to have been affected, the company confirmed in October that 30 million had in fact been affected.
The British Airways data breach reported to customers in September could end up costing the company £500 million in fines alone under new European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) terms which mean firms can be fined 4% of turnover.
Compensation costs and potential lawsuit settlements would be additional monetary imposts — not to mention the financial impact of any reputational damage.
A report published in October estimated the cost of the May 2017 WannaCry attack, which disrupted services at one-third of NHS trusts and resulted in more than 19,000 GP appointments being cancelled. That cost up to £92m (A$161M) in lost output and £73 million to restore affected data and systems.
The Department for Health and Social Care (DHSC) also disclosed it will spend about £275 million on additional security measures by the end of 2021, in the latest update to its report Securing cyber resilience in health and care.
The report said that to assess the true cost accurately and fully, it would have to collect data from all organisations, which would be a “disproportionate financial burden” on the system.
This summer, Infosecurity Magazine reported more than $1 million is lost every minute to cybercrime, while 1,861 people fall victim to scams.
At the time, security author Raef Meeuwisse told Infosecurity that at both the level of personal and organizational cybersecurity, spending is usually too low.
He said he still has regular conversations where a person will talk about someone they know who has lost a fortune through an online scam, yet there was still reluctance to pay £5 a month for home security software.
It goes without saying that all businesses must closely consider and invest in the right IT solutions to ensure the security of customer and stakeholder data as well as their efficient use and management.
The true cost of cybercrime is rising and the numbers seen in some of the high profile examples above should demonstrate that the scale and scope of this is huge and could happen at any time. Businesses and individuals could, if they’re not careful, lose everything which is why the case for security measures is greater than ever.
General Information Only
S3 Consortium Pty Ltd (S3, ‘we’, ‘us’, ‘our’) (CAR No. 433913) is a corporate authorised representative of LeMessurier Securities Pty Ltd (AFSL No. 296877). The information contained in this article is general information and is for informational purposes only. Any advice is general advice only. Any advice contained in this article does not constitute personal advice and S3 has not taken into consideration your personal objectives, financial situation or needs. Please seek your own independent professional advice before making any financial investment decision. Those persons acting upon information contained in this article do so entirely at their own risk.
Conflicts of Interest Notice
S3 and its associated entities may hold investments in companies featured in its articles, including through being paid in the securities of the companies we provide commentary on. We disclose the securities held in relation to a particular company that we provide commentary on. Refer to our Disclosure Policy for information on our self-imposed trading blackouts, hold conditions and de-risking (sell conditions) which seek to mitigate against any potential conflicts of interest.
Publication Notice and Disclaimer
The information contained in this article is current as at the publication date. At the time of publishing, the information contained in this article is based on sources which are available in the public domain that we consider to be reliable, and our own analysis of those sources. The views of the author may not reflect the views of the AFSL holder. Any decision by you to purchase securities in the companies featured in this article should be done so after you have sought your own independent professional advice regarding this information and made your own inquiries as to the validity of any information in this article.
Any forward-looking statements contained in this article are not guarantees or predictions of future performance, and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors, many of which are beyond our control, and which may cause actual results or performance of companies featured to differ materially from those expressed in the statements contained in this article. S3 cannot and does not give any assurance that the results or performance expressed or implied by any forward-looking statements contained in this article will actually occur and readers are cautioned not to put undue reliance on forward-looking statements.
This article may include references to our past investing performance. Past performance is not a reliable indicator of our future investing performance.
