AZ Business Magazine November/December 2013
Didn’t See It Coming!
Like an increasing number of people, I was the victim of cyber crime. And, like most people, I thought I did everything right to protect myself from becoming a victim. I never clicked on links from suspicious emails. I created complicated passwords that I changed frequently. I only used secure networks when I engaged in any type of online commerce.
But I still became a victim. The bad guys got the password to my home Wi-Fi system, camped out in front of my house until they were able to retrieve the passwords to my financial accounts and then drain them before I even knew what happened. I’m not alone. Globally, there will be 556 million victims of cyber crime this year, or 18 victims per second. And, like me, most victims won’t be able to recover their losses. According to recent cyber crime studies, these are the loss and recovery statistics of bank fund fraud cases:
*22 percent were able to hold on to funds.
*10 percent were able to recover fraudulently transferred funds.
*68 percent were declared unrecoverable.
*37 percent caused loss to banks due to reimbursements.
These disturbing trends are some of the many reasons I am so happy to see the Arizona Bankers Association taking such proactive steps to protect their customers from cyber attacks. You can read about the group’s effort inside this issue of Az Business magazine.
Trust me, heed their advice. Before you finish reading this sentence, there will be 72 more victims of cyber crime.
Michael Gossie, Editor in Chief
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