SMEs to become targets of more sophisticated cyber-crime in 2012, experts warn

SMEs will increasingly become targets of more sophisticated cyber-crime in 2012 that will be more difficult to detect, experts predict.

The forecast comes alongside another prediction that “hacktivists” – hackers who break into security systems to promote a certain cause – could play less of a role in the cyber-crime community than during the past 12 months.

Those predictions come alongside comments made by the Australian Federal Police that 2012 will see more businesses hit by cyber-crime and hacking attempts than ever before, as more businesses continue to put more critical data online.

Rob Forsyth, managing director at Sophos Australia and New Zealand, says the nature of cyber-crime changes over time and 2012 will bring even more evolution to the fast-paced world of hacking.

“We saw a lot of hacktivists last year, who were by their very nature protesting something,” he told SmartCompany this morning.

“But I think we’re going to see an evolution this year, which will see organised crime get a lot more prominence. Whereas activists are stealing to notify authorities and inform the public, cyber criminals will be different and have a new element of secrecy.”

Forsyth suggests that as a result, we could see a lot of broadly focused theft, rather than groups of criminals targeting one company specifically.

But AVG security advisor Michael McKinnon says small businesses may be a key target this year.

“Really, what changes in terms of the profile of cyber-crime tends to be in response to how we change reactions to it. In 2011 we saw larger companies, enterprises, becoming very good at protecting themselves and responding to larger threats.”

“The communication channels between enterprise level companies and law enforcement has improved. Now, the hacking attacks are occurring on smaller businesses as a result.”

McKinnon says cyber criminals now understand larger businesses are protecting themselves properly. Now, it’s time for small businesses to start thinking about how to protect themselves.

“There are two types of threats – one that’s on a mass scale that affects everyone. Now we’re also seeing the big targeting, from the criminals who are looking at hacking into a system to get specific information.”

“But the trend is here, we know large companies are being attacked. But they are getting good at protecting themselves, so it’s time for SMEs to pull up their socks and see what they can do to protect themselves.”

Forsyth says SMEs need to start learning how to protect themselves, as more criminals start using methods that will become even harder to detect.

“With cloud computing, we’re getting more high profile hacks occurring. But we’re also getting ones that are under the radar, and very hard to detect.”

“What we’re seeing is more criminals that are deciding than rather target one company for a large amount, it’s still okay to target a larger number of companies for a slightly smaller amount from each, and in ways that are harder to detect.”