James Comey, Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation(FBI) said “the pervasiveness of the cyber threat is such that the FBI and other intelligence, military, homeland security, and law enforcement agencies across the government view cyber security and cyber attacks as a top priority.”
As cyber security becomes an increasing need in our personal and national safety, here’s a list of the three most common types of cyber attacks we face, as stated by the FBI:
- Ransomware: Much like the name entails, is when company information, software, or application is restricted from access and can only be restored if a ransom is paid. Usually costs the company a hefty price, but due to the ransom being less than the cost of loss per day companies end up paying
- Business Email Compromise: Have costed over $3 billion in losses worldwide. Usually done through phishing, taking over or impersonating a corporate email. Such fraudulent acts can help attackers send unwarranted wire transfers from medium to large sized businesses. Many of these attacks are well crafted by having similar looking domains and rerouting methods that are well replicated.
- Intellectual Property Theft: When a company’s ideas, creations, works are compromised. Intellectual property theft can include trade secrets, inside information, and proprietary products and parts. A widely rampant example is the sharing and pirating of movies and music.