Cybercrime
In recent years, cybercrime has become a major method of forcing or deceiving individuals and businesses into committing fraudulent payments.
Forcing, by way of hacking, computer systems on mass to prevent access to data.
Deceiving, by way of spoofing a legitimate company, or individual’s email communication and requesting payments to the cybercriminal’s bank accounts.
Cybercriminals methods include a list of their own tasks from first identifying their target, to forcing or deceiving their target into making the illegal payment.
Just like a thief looking to steal an item of value to then sell on, the cybercriminals aim to do this in the easiest way possible.
An unlocked or open window is much more enticing to the thief than one fully protected.
The cybercriminals often follow the same principle.
Within Information Technology, Usernames and Passwords are the keys to gain access to data and payment details.
You wouldn’t give your house keys to someone you do not know or leave them on show in an unsecured environment due the value those keys protect.
Just as a cybercriminal has principles of attack, we must also use our own principles in defence. Usernames and Passwords together form a User Account to a system.
Secure your details with MFA
To help you to secure these details as much as possible, we've introduced Multifactor Authentication (MFA).
MFA adds an extra layer of protection to your account, often incorporating your mobile smart phone. The password will be something you know and the mobile phone will be something you own, making stealing your User account details much harder for the cybercriminal.
Practically, this means you input your password as normal into the system, you receive a notification on your phone. When you accept the notification, the system to allow you in.
MFA can also be a way of alerting you if someone has access to your password. Suppose you are not at work but your phone receives an alert to say your account is trying to log in. In that case, you can challenge this and contact your IT Support Team or provider who will investigate and potentially deny any hacking attempt before its too late.
Defence in depth is the best practice to prevent cybercriminals from seriously damaging individual and business reputation and finances.