Staying ahead of cyber crime
Daily media reports remind us that ‘cybercrime’ – defined as criminal activities carried out by means of computers or the Internet – is on the increase. According to the Office for National Statistics, there were an estimated 3.6 million cases of cyber fraud and two million computer misuse offences last year.
This included over 2.3million reported cases of bank account fraud where criminals use ‘phishing’ techniques to take victims to a website that looks like an official bank’s site. Over 1.3million people were subject to unauthorised software damaging their machine – often called ‘ransomware’ which encrypts files until a ransom is paid. Over 680,000 individuals were victims of hacking.
It is not just individuals who fall prey to online criminal activity. The cyberattack against the NHS in May affected around 40 hospitals and GP surgeries in the UK. In June, Parliament was hit by hackers attempting to gain access to MPs’ and staff email accounts.
At the same time, new data protection laws coming into force in 2018 will have an substantial impact on the way that businesses can manage your financial data.
The full team at Sandison Lang has now taken part in extensive cyber resilience training. This will be repeated every quarter to ensure we stay one step ahead of the latest issues affecting online financial transactions. Our internal systems have been audited by an external data protection expert and we are confident we are leading the industry in terms of our secure processes.