How Cyber Crime Affects Business

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Cyber crimes are a threat that is common and hard to be avoided. They can affect daily life of individuals, the normal operation of institutes and companies, as well as that of the government. Cyber crimes can cause direct or indirect consequences, sometimes both. Directly, cyber crimes can cause downtime of the whole computer system and data to be stolen. Indirectly, because of the confidential data are stolen, a company can lose its tender. Organisations pay lots of money to deal with cyber crimes. The humanity pays around $445 billion (that is £294 billion) a year to deal with cyber crimes (Ashford, 2015), in which £21 billion is paid by the UK, which is a substantial amount (The Cost of Cyber Crime, 2011).

While cyber criminals have different preferences in their approaches, some approaches are more favoured. IP thefts cost the UK £9.2 billion every year, that is almost one half of the amount for dealing with all cyber crimes (Baines, 2013). IP theft does not mean stealing IP (Internet Protocol) addresses but intellectual property. Some industries are more likely to suffer from IP thefts, for example, pharmaceuticals and biotech, electrons and electrical equipment, software and computer servers, are among the top 3. IP thieves usually target victims according to market value, for example, amount of tenders and transactions, valuable goods and material etc. 

Industrial espionage comes second after IP thefts. In this crime, intellectual property is not the only target, but also information such as customer details, pricing decisions and trade secrets, which are usually not revealed to outsiders. This crime does not necessarily require the Internet or malicious softwares to be committed. It can also be committed in person. Plug the USB and copy the files in unattended computers, as simple as doing warm-up on your fingers. 

Cyber crimes come in many different forms. It is very difficult to deal with the problem of cyber crime, but the government and the business sector can cooperate and contribute what they each can give to alleviate the problem. In particular, the business can lower the risk of being a victim of cyber crime through enhancing the employees’ awareness to cyber traps and setting a strict password for important documents etc. 

References:

Ashford, W. (2015). Cyber Crime: What Every Business Needs to Know. Computer Weekly. [online] Available at: http://www.computerweekly.com/feature/Cyber-crime-what-every-business-needs-to-know [Accessed 20 Nov. 2015].

Baines, S. (2013). Businesses Need to Protect against IP Theft. The Guardian. [online] Available at: http://www.theguardian.com/media-network/media-network-blog/2013/feb/11/intellectual-property-theft-cyber-security [Accessed 20 Nov. 2015].

The Cost of Cyber Crime. (2011). 1st ed. [ebook] Guildford: Detica Limited, pp.5-6. Available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/60942/THE-COST-OF-CYBER-CRIME-SUMMARY-FINAL.pdf [Accessed 20 Nov. 2015].