Our Professional Refresher on Cybercrime gives you the keys to keeping your online information safe and secure
by Lauren Johnson, CISI copywriter
Take the Cybercrime Professional Refresher to earn 75 minutes' CPD
No matter your industry, cybercrime is a threat to everyone. Royal Mail, for example, recently fell victim to ransomware attackers who threatened to publish their users’ information. This disrupted overseas deliveries, but the company has since been able to resume some shipping using alternative solutions and systems.
We have long lived in the digital age where so much personal data is accessible online. Our newly refreshed module looks at boosting your cybersecurity to avoid becoming a victim. All information in the below summary is taken from the learning material.
This Professional Refresher is split into five parts:
- Who commits cybercrime?
- The common types of cybercrime
- The victims of cybercrime
- Cybersecurity
- Relevant legislation
1. Who commits cybercrime?
This section explores how you can spot where you are vulnerable in cyberspace and which ‘threat actors’ are likely to take advantage, including online criminals, governments, and hackers. If you use WhatsApp, Slack, or Google Groups, think about how much you share in those applications, as online criminals are likely to be using them too. When faced with an issue, it is important to identify the source to prevent the crime from reoccurring from the same source.
2. The common types of cybercrimeThe module reports that phishing attacks rose from 72% to 86% between 2017 to 2020. It introduces denial-of-service and distributed denial-of-service, which is a type of attack that clouds a computer network with traffic to make a site unavailable to its users. It also looks at how webpages can be set up to look like they are legitimate when they’re not, and provides an example of a phishing email, supposedly from HMRC, telling the recipient they have a tax refund due and including a link to ‘claim your tax’.
3. The victims of cybercrimeIf you work in the financial sector, you are likely to be targeted for obvious reasons, one being the opportunity for financial gain. Organisations hold different types of data about us (see our General Data Protection Regulation module for a deeper understanding of the scope of information that we give to other parties). It is important to be clued up on just how much detail you are giving away. The research states that “wealth management platforms (which are used by many thousands of private investors and their financial advisers) hold volumes of detailed, valuable data about their investor clients”, and notes the chain of events likely to occur if this is not kept secure.
4. Cybersecurity
Protecting the devices we use is integral in ensuring our information is kept secure. Tips for staying safe online include how to withstand a cyberattack and how to mitigate the consequences. Firms must be able to predict, deter, prevent, and be prepared to respond to, cyberattacks.
5. Relevant legislation
Some of the laws relevant to cybercrime include:
It is not within the scope of the module to examine the laws in detail but it provides an outline of how they apply to you within your organisation, and what constitutes a breach.
Successful cybercrime activity can lead to devastating consequences. You can be the difference in keeping your information and your organisation’s data safe.