The global community may have brought the world closer together, but it has also introduced enhanced security risks for companies in all verticals.+- Even the most diligent and well-known corporations have experienced an increase in attacks on proprietary and customer information. It is more important than ever for companies to be proactive in protecting themselves against potential damage. There has been a significant shift in cybercrime, with less attention paid to perpetrating credit card information and an increase in the more powerful and lucrative ‘data mining’. Business Intelligence (BI) has become the most sought after source, as it brings multiple levels of opportunity for the sale of private data in an array of fields. South African companies have entered the cyberworld at a later time than some countries.

This brings up the positive view that they did not have to suffer through the technical problems of older legacy systems that allowed criminal activity. But there is also a downside in that criminals may focus their efforts on what they feel might be less sophisticated technologies. It is, therefore, a high priority to maintain business integrity with a focus on the avoidance and elimination of cybercrime in all industries.

The statistics reported from the International Cyber Security Protection Alliance have shown that at least 26% of the corporations interviewed have experienced attacks that had a considerable impact on both business reputation and financial loss. The loss that is related to reputation alone is incalculable, as corporations scramble to ‘fix’ breaches that they were not aware existed. Each of these are key points that need to be red-flagged for priority attention for today’s savvy businesses before a problem strikes.

The importance of comprehensive risk analysis is to test and alert for potential damage, address and manage any risks that have been found, and monitor for any future misuse that could damage the company, its customers and its reputation.

“The prevention of fraud and loss of both financial and corporate integrity due to cybercrime is the main focus of the Da Vinci Forensics teams. Our diligence and expertise allow us to monitor and maintain the highest level of defence and detection, which then dictates a fast response time for client protection.”

Sharon Knowles, CEO of Da Vinci Forensics

Net communications will continue to be the future of business as we know it and as the crest of cybercrime increases, perpetrators will find more intricate methods to infiltrate and locate any weakness that exists in a company’s IT structure.

It is imperative that corporations align themselves with organisations that will establish an application framework for comprehensive systems to mitigate the damage caused by cybercrime incidents.