Half of Belgian businesses have already fallen victim to cybercrime

Half of Belgian businesses have already fallen victim to cybercrime. Belgian businesses are an easy prey for cybercriminals: the figures speak for themselves.

How widespread is cybercrime in Belgium?

53.6 percent of the Belgian businesses surveyed experienced one or more cases of cybercrime during the past 12 months.

 

 

The most common form of cybercrime is illegal access to a network or company data by an external party or an internal employee without the right privileges. In a fifth of cases, data is damaged or deleted. Almost a fifth of businesses have been a victim of cyber extortion, whereby hackers block data or network access until a ransom is paid.

Internet fraud includes, among others, fraud with online banking and payment cards.

One in 10 businesses have experienced cyberespionage, in which confidential data is stolen.

Source: BCC, The Impact of Cybercrime on Belgian Businesses, 2018.

 

 

In more than half of attacks on Belgian businesses, one or more forms of social engineering (such as phishing) are used, whereby the cybercriminal abuses the confidence of one or more employees.

Traditional malware (viruses, trojans, etc.) are involved in half of attacks.

Other culprits include human error and the theft or loss of hard drives or USB sticks.

In Command and Control malware, better known as a botnet, a company's IT infrastructure is used to enable other forms of cybercrime.

Source: PwC, Information Security Breaches Survey 2017.

 

 

The direct costs of a cyber incident can be high:

5% of businesses end up spending more than €100,000. This doesn't include potential reputation damage and lost revenue.

Source: PwC, Information Security Breaches Survey 2017.

 

 

Read more on how to protect your company

 

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