Business Warning About Cyber Crime – West Yorkshire Police (press release)

Wednesday May 24, 2017

West Yorkshire Police is warning business that the impact of a cyber attack can be as bad or even worse than more traditional crimes.

So-called cyber crime - crime that uses a computer, laptop or similar device as part of the offence - is on the increase across the Yorkshire and Humber region.

And criminals are looking to target business because of the greater rewards on offer.

Typical attacks include mandate fraud where businesses receive phishing emails purporting to be from a legitimate company or finance personnel sending a request for payment details.

Money is then unwittingly paid to the fraudster.

Another popular method of attack is ransomware attacks where businesses open an email which then installs ransomware in the system, taking over and stealing sensitive data and information.

Businesses then receive a ransom demand which they tend to pay. It is thought that this type of crime is under reported as businesses want to avoid what could be seen as potentially negative publicity.

But the West Yorkshire Cyber Crime Unit is looking to take the fight directly to the criminals and has advice to help guard against such attacks.

Detective Chief Inspector Vanessa Smith is in charge of the Regional Cyber Crime Unit for the Yorkshire and Humber.

She also leads the West Yorkshire Cyber Crime Unit.

"The computer has become the new crow bar with many criminals not even leaving the comfort of their own home as they try and extract what can be very large sums of money from companies.

"The impact of such an attack can be massive and some businesses have even had to close because of cyber crime.

"To me that isnt acceptable this isnt a victimless crime and people can lose their livelihoods because of it.

"So we want to make it as hard as possible for criminals to launch an attack.

"We are doing everything we can to prevent such crimes but there are also some steps businesses can carry out to protect themselves.

"Businesses rightly invest in good locks, strong doors and alarm systems to keep burglars out and the same applies to keeping cyber criminals out with a little bit of investment companies can greatly reduce their chances of being a victim."

Tips include:

DCI Smith added: "In addition to this we have a document available on our website which gives further detailed advice about how to avoid an attack but also what to do should the worst happen and a cyber criminal succeed.

"There is also the Cyber-security Information Sharing Partnership (CiSP) which is a joint industry and government backed social networking tool.

"It enables its members to exchange information on threats and vulnerabilities as they occur in real time.

"Partners from across industry and government feed into the team and share high quality reports to help better protect members. It is free to join for any organisation that has responsibility for a UK-based IT network."

In February the inaugural Yorkshire and the Humber Cyber Protect Business Conference was held to help businesses protect themselves against cyber crime. It was shown live via Youtube and is still available here

And as a follow up experts from across the cyber security sphere will be speaking at a seminar about ransomware attacks on business later this month.

The event, which is free, is again being organised by the Yorkshire and the Humber Regional Cyber Crime Unit. It is being held on Friday (19 May) and spaces are still available. Visit here for more information.

For more information about the CiSP visit http://www.ncsc.gov.uk/cisp

For the document about cyber crime visit here

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Business Warning About Cyber Crime - West Yorkshire Police (press release)