While the internet has undoubtedly transformed the world in which we live, no-one can deny that it has also come with some more undesirable aspects. One of these has been cybercrime. It seems only logical that anywhere that stores valuable information, holds people’s personal details and is a medium through which payments are made and received will be at risk.

 

And so it has come to pass. In 2023 there were a reported 2,300 attacks globally which affected a staggering 343,338,964 people. According to the Canadian Survey of Cybercrime and Cyber Security in 2023 this affected around 16% of businesses in the country. CSCCS figures also show that businesses spent a total of $1.2 billion dollars recovering from the effects of cybercrime and a staggering $11 billion on preventative measures. While one might expect only large businesses to be at risk from the cyber criminals, increasingly they are starting to target small and medium-sized companies who may have more limited budgets to deploy for protection and prevention. More crucially, often it’s individuals who are the ultimate victims of cyber crime.

 

Some recent victims

 

Although the effects on people tend to go unreported, it’s the larger organisations, perhaps whose clients and customers they are, who receive this rather unwanted publicity. For example, in 2022 Activision, the publisher of the Call of Duty series of games was victim to an SMS phishing attack on a member of their HR team. Believing the communication to be genuine they released a wealth of information about employees, many confidential emails and even salary details. Unfortunately correcting this mistake was rather harder than fixing a bug on their most successful game.

 

In February 2023 the retailer Indigo suffered a cyber attack that lasted several days, and which prevented any of their stores from being able to process debit or credit card payments. The knock-on effect obliterated their online sales for nearly four weeks after the initial attack. There is, of course, a far more pernicious kind of cybercrime that takes the form of scams aimed at the unsuspecting public. For example, there are many fake websites out there that appear to be 100% legitimate but which will never supply goods or services that have been paid for.

 

One sector that has been targeted in the past by cybercriminals is iGaming. Fake online casino sites have been set up to deliberately defraud people. So, anyone looking to sign up with an online casino in Canada would be wise to only choose ones found on reputable review sites. These will have been checked and verified as genuine. Another widely used scam involves taking deposits and rental money for holiday homes that really only exist in the criminals’ imaginations. 

Then there are scams that have a double whammy effect on both businesses and their customers. Air Canada was a high-profile victim of this in 2023 when it suffered a distributed denial of service attach. A DDoS attack is one in which hackers bombard a website with requests effectively paralysing it. In this case it affected check in desks and electronic gates at a number of airports across the country inconveniencing both business and leisure travellers as well as playing havoc with the airline’s scheduled departures.

 

What’s to be done?

 

So sophisticated are some cyber criminals that it’s almost impossible to detect a fake site or a fraudulent attempt and that’s why quite so many people are taken in each year. As an individual there are certain steps that can be taken to avoid falling victim. The first is to maintain a level of awareness about the sorts of scams being used at the time. For example, fake sites offering ridiculously cheap items tend to proliferate in the run-up to the holidays. So a good rule of thumb to follow is that if it looks too god to be true, it probably is. Another is to make sure that all malware and anti-virus protection is up to date on devices that you use. Even in big companies, it’s generally a mistake by an individual that sets off the chain reaction by inadvertently letting the hackers and cybercriminals in. So never open an attachment on an email from a suspicious source, the risks are simply too great.

 

For businesses, most now use the professional services of a cyber security provider, and there are plenty to choose from in Canada. Hopefully their investment in professional advice will go a long way towards keeping the rest of us safe. But, at the end of the day, a certain level of responsibility needs to be taken by us all. So it’s a question of staying alert, being cautious and, if we’re in any doubt at all, steering well clear of danger.