Displaying items by tag: Home computers

Security vendor Avast says the chance of home PC users encountering cyber threats has increased by approximately 5% since last year.

Scammers have stolen more than $7.2 million from Australians so far this year by gaining access to home computers, an increase of 184% compared to the same period last year.

GUEST RESEARCH:  Varonis, a global pioneer in data security, has just released its 2021 Financial Services Data Risk Report, which delves into the state of data security in the banking, insurance, and investment sectors.

Financial services remains one of the most targeted industries by malicious attacks, partly due to the sensitive data it collects from customers, with the average cost of a data breach among the highest of any industry at 5.85 million USD. Despite the need to protect this sensitive data, on average, every employee has access to nearly 11 million files.

The abrupt transition to remote work has exponentially increased this risk, with employees logging in through unsecured networks and home computers. Furthermore, it has potentially increased the response time to a data breach.

Some of the key findings include:

• A financial services employee has access to nearly 11 million files. For larger companies, the number doubles to 20 million files.
• 20% of all folders are open to every employee.
• 39% of companies have over 10,000 stale — but enabled — user accounts.
• Nearly two-thirds of companies have 1,000+ sensitive files open to every employee.
• About 60% of companies have 500+ passwords that never expire.

The full Varonis report can be accessed here.