Business Fraud Security Incidents [Infographic]

Katheryn Watson https://merchantmachine.co.uk 1m 265 #securityfraud

The views of this article are the perspective of the author and may not be reflective of Confessions of the Professions.

Industry Invasions: Fraud & Security Incidents By Business Size, Industry & Country

As companies grow larger, so does their risk of falling victim to cyber crimes. Over 55,000 security breaches and incidents, related to cyber crimes, were reported by eight of the most attacked sectors in 2018. With technologies advancing and hackers knowledge growing with it, who is the most at risk of a cyber attack?

A new study by Merchant Machine analyses which sectors, businesses and countries need to be more considerate of their online security by revealing what incidents and breaches occurred last year. An incident can be many things such as a website defacement or impersonation, but a breach puts sensitive information at risk. Cyber-security breaches are more malicious as they are intended to gather, spread or use sensitive information.

The study shows us that one in five small businesses were affected by fraud last year. 19% of businesses with 10-49 employees reported that they were affected by cyber fraud in 2018. This is a considerable jump from just 10% of businesses with between 1-9 employees. The threats continue to increase with business size as the study also found that almost a third (29%) of businesses with 50+ employees fell victim to fraud threats in 2018.

Which sectors are most at risk? Suffering from a security breach or incident occurs in more sectors than others and businesses are the number one target for cybercriminals. The study found that the healthcare, property and public sectors all reported the highest rates of breaches last year with 536, 338 and 304 instances respectively.

For more information, view the full results of the study at Merchant Machine.

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