Technological advancements are transforming the ways how businesses are operating and interacting with end-users and customers. However, although technology brings vast opportunities and advantages in society’s everyday life, it also comes with challenges humankind must be aware of. In the cases of security breaches, stolen and misused identity, and credit card data, the cybersecurity cover can provide immediate assistance and protection. What cybersecurity risks businesses and individuals must be aware of, and how can organisations and society safeguard themselves from scams? Discover in the article below!
1,2 trillion euros annual revenue for cybercriminals
According to the RSA report, from cybercrime, cybercriminals earn more than 1,2 trillion euros per year. Overall, as Jupiter research reported, the annual costs of all data breaches by the Year 2019 exceeded at least 1,7 trillion euros.
Not surprisingly, the victims of cybersecurity attacks are not only SMEs but increasingly individuals and private households. When it comes to cybersecurity-attacks towards individuals and private households, identity theft is the fastest-growing breach occurring when fraudsters get the user’s data and apply it to access the financial accounts.
Cyber Crime in Austria
Phishing method – the most common way to steal personal data
From all cyber-attack methods, phishing is the most common strategy used to obtain users’ identity data, especially to open bank accounts and to steal credit card information. Usually, it occurs, sending a fraudulent email or landing users to a spoofed website. However, today, fraudsters use social media and apps to lure victims to leave their data like passwords, personal information, and even PINs and login information. Apart from mentioned above, phishing is also a popular way to send malware– a downloadable document or link that will install malware on the victim’s device.
In the most common case scenario, criminals send a fraudulent email pretending to be from a legitimate company like, for instance, a bank, the post office, or a well-known online retailer. The email content consists of psychological tricks to lure to action; for example, alerting the user on fraud and, for security reasons, asking the user to verify the bank account. After the user’s account verification and personal data sharing, the person becomes a victim of cyber-crime. Important to note, the most common brands used for impersonation attacks are Microsoft, Amazon, Netflix, Dropbox, VISA, UPS, and local banks. The most common time to receive a phishing email is mid-week within the regular working hours.
Here is an example of how a phishing email from a bank can look like: (This was a real scam case in Austria).
The email content looks genuine, and the link displayed is the bank’s actual link. However, when the user clicks on it, the person is forwarded to the fraudulent landing page. Source of graph.
Online payments – mayor target for cybercriminals
The usage of digital payment methods is rising, and so are fraudsters who use online payments as a platform for fraudulent actions in online purchasing processes, where individuals’ data and credential details are saved digitally.
Furthermore, it’s much more difficult for a retailer to detect and verify who is making the purchase or payment. Online retailers cannot quickly notice whether the purchase is illegal and fulfill the order. This brings a financial risk and unnecessary frustration for an individual, as it usually takes around two working days to deal with the consequences of online payment fraud – deactivating your account, ordering a new one, updating your payment data, etc.
On the other side, it creates difficulties for retailers too. When a cardholder is detecting a fraudulent payment, the online seller has to refund the amount paid and, on top of that, has to pay a chargeback fee to the payment provider. Chargeback fees may vary depending on the banking service provider from 20 to 100 EUR. Besides that, online stores face the loss of operational, product, and marketing costs and are imposed with the potential risk of losing reputation.
Most common Identity thefts
The criminal marketplace for credentials and personal data
In identity theft cases, the criminals get access to cardholder information through phishing, skimming on payment pages, or simply acquiring the information on the dark web. In the middle of this year, Forbes published an article providing disappointing figures on the distribution of personal data stolen. Shockingly, more than 15 billion stolen login data are offered for sale in dark web forums. Commonly, stolen credentials such as account logins, username and password pairs, online banking access, social media accounts are offered for purchase on the dark web.
According to the yearly report of Secureworks State of Cybercrime, individuals’ account credentials are sold for prices as low as 10 cents to 20 euros. Stolen data profiles with complete biographic and payment card data are offered for sale for prices between 10 cents and 100 euros, depending on the profile and available balance. In this environment, the most expensive data are bank accounts that are sold for a premium price and might cost more if there is a higher balance or fresher the theft.
Cyber Protection for your safety
Besides being cautious and regularly checking your payment history, a cyber cover can safeguard you and assist you in cyber-attack cases. In this relation, insurers cooperate with certified IT and Cyber-security enterprises to provide a service for insured consumers.
There are different cyber protection plans for individuals, but it is essential to keep in mind that cyber protection insurance covers for businesses differ significantly from the cover provided for individuals and private households. Nonetheless, different insurance service providers offer plans for individuals and private households in the form of individual insurance contracts or as an additional part of a legal protection insurance plan.
Usually, the covers ensure online purchasing scam, i.e., when the user purchases a fraudulent app or website but doesn’t receive the items or when the data has been misused in the internet environment. Plans usually include 24/365 service-lines, which can be contacted in the situations of cyber-attacks to get immediate expert guidance.
bsurance Cyber Security cover
Our embedded cyber protection plan for business partners
With the increased cybersecurity risks and threats in the online environment, the demand for cybersecurity has boomed. To safeguard customers of e-commerce platform providers, retailers, mobile services, and energy providers we have designed and developed a cyber insurance tariff together with one of our leading insurance providers.
Cyber protection insurance plans can be integrated easily into business partners’ offers for their client stocks, improving and increasing consumers’ brand loyalty, online safety and reducing unnecessary worries and costs when it comes to cyber risks.
Apart from the 24 h service line to assist in cyber fraud situations, the plan covers necessary legal advice, cyber risk prevention costs and support in cases of identity and payment data theft. Furthermore, as our plans cover embedded distribution for a larger group of clients, premiums can be lowered from three to five times more than the standard premium for a single contract signed directly at an insurer by an individual.
Willing to explore insurance benefits of an embedded cyber protection for your business? Please do not hesitate to get in touch with one of our experts!
