U.S. government steps up focus on cybercrimes

[McFurd]

Consumer Affairs - 5/8/2017 - Mark Huffman - In response to the proliferation of cybercrime activity, such as last week's phishing scam targeting Gmail users, U.S. law enforcement is increasing its efforts to root it out. In fact, the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) reports financial losses from cybercrime is steadily growing but is largely under reported. The FBI reports losses of nearly $1.1 billion across the U.S., stemming 127,145 incidents. More alarming, agents suggest these extensive losses are just the tip of the iceberg. The IC3 report estimates as few as 15% of fraud victims even report internet crimes to law enforcement. While data breaches at large retail chains tend to get the headlines, small businesses are increasingly vulnerable to ransomware, a type of malware that infects and seizes control of an entire network by way of an encryption tool. The hacker only releases the data when the victim pays a ransom. Read more @ https://www.consumeraffairs.com/news/us ... 50817.html