Although cybercrime was once a highly intangible threat in the eyes of the average business owner, it has become all-too-real in the past few years, impacting thousands of organizations and millions of consumers each year. Early on, analysts and experts had stressed the importance of battening down the hatches, using advanced identity and access management controls before deploying new types of technologies and shifting information into digital formats. 

However, hackers are currently winning the cybercrime war by a landslide, especially in certain nations such as the United States and the United Kingdom, causing hundreds of billions of dollars in losses annually. Without the use of authentication tools and other forms of progressive access management, it is unlikely that businesses, consumers and governments will be able to reduce the rate of crime any time soon. 

Staggering statistics
The Globe and Mail recently reported that a new study from the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C., revealed that cybercrime has caused $400 billion worth of loss annually, while that figure is continuing to rise. Canada was one of the better performers on this list, but still saw roughly $3.2 billion in losses due to cybercrime and subsequent fraudulent activities last year, which is certainly nothing to shake a fist at. 

According to the news provider, certain major pieces of malware and viruses were at the center of the losses, with Gameover Zeus accounting for more than $100 million thus far. In terms of finding cybercriminals and bringing them to justice, the world seems to be very far behind the threats, meaning that few instances of hacking and other events will end in a court case and the recovery of the lost funds. 

Still, the source noted that the CSIS ranked Canada's tracking of national cybercrime at a medium level of confidence, while the government has already enacted a new Cyber Security Cooperation Program. 

Proactive or bust
As aforementioned, very few cybercrime attacks end in any type of recovery for the victim, and this further highlights the importance of shifting the mentality of decision-makers from reactive to proactive. In the war on hacking and data loss, no weapon is greater than a swiftly deployed security program that is relevant to the current and forthcoming vulnerabilities of the business. 

By implementing next-generation controls such as multi-factor authentication, businesses can avoid becoming a statistic in the modern digital landscape.