A report issued by cyber security firm Shape Security has indicated that 90% of the global login traffic on e-commerce websites is initiated by hackers. The airline industry is also under attack, with approximately 60% of logins being unauthorized. The hackers allegedly use information bought on the dark web to log into accounts and purchase or steal something of value which can be monetized and sold (e.g. airline miles). While the hackers are only successful 3% of the time, this type of fraud costs the e-commerce industry approximately $6 billion a year. This is more than the consumer banking industry ($1.7 billion) and the hotel/airline business ($700 million) loses annually in similar attacks. We cannot reiterate it too often – you should frequently change your passwords and vigilantly monitor your accounts to help reduce these types of attacks.
Check out our series, Privacy Perils, to learn what steps you can take to guard your personal and company data. For more information about this topic and other cyber security concerns, please contact a member of our Privacy & Data Security team.