Criminals targeting businesses as well as individuals.
Cybercrime is costing the Northern Ireland economy almost £100m a year, an accountancy firm has claimed.
Grant Thornton said the largest cost was from frauds that had traditionally been offline, such as tax (£38m), welfare (£6m) and tax filing (£1.7m).
Mike Harris of the firm said criminals were targeting businesses of all sizes as well as individuals.
“For organisations, the key defence strategy is around employee awareness,” he said.
“Make sure they understand when cyber attacks are targeting them, and know how to respond and make the right decisions.
“For example, it can be as simple as when you get an email from somebody you don’t know, don’t click on any links.
“They also have to focus on keeping technology securely configured and up to date.”
The company said that in Northern Ireland, copyright infringing software had an annual cost of £19m, cybercrime clean-up costs were £12.5m and illegal music downloads cost £1.35m.
Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/