Businesses need to protect their data by upgrading security measures.
With the number of cyber criminal cases increasing, companies might want to look into using a document scanning service so that all their important documents and data can be kept in a secure location.
Kevin Wharram, an independent IT security consultant, warned that cyber crime is "definitely on the rise" – and what’s more, it’s getting more sophisticated.
"There was an article from the Economist where it says cybercrime revenues exceed those from the global trade in illegal drugs," he recalled.
"In the drug trade, there are a lot of risks, whereas in cyber crime, you can be on a beach somewhere and conduct cyber crime – if done right, you will never get caught."
More hackers are using a variety of methods to hack into business computers, meaning vital information could be lost for ever if an office network became infected with malware, which is why document scanning and storage could be a good move for many firms.
"[Cyber criminals] either use social engineering by tricking you into installing software, or they use known, or zero-day exploits that target vulnerabilities in applications and operating systems. By just browsing a site, a user’s system could become infected if they are vulnerable to an exploit that is present on a malicious website being browsed – this is called drive-by download," Mr Wharram explained.
Aside from protecting business interests and operations by investing in document scanning, companies could also protect their IT systems by ensuring every computer has up-to-date software and is fully patched. Users should check they have the latest version of software on their PC and laptop and could also run a security product to check for any malware attacks.
"An antivirus product should be installed and kept up to date on a users system [and] users should use various site advisor tools for browsing sites safely, which will prevent users from browsing malware infected sites," the IT security expert added.