“Artificial intelligence has opened a new era of cybercrime. It is an extremely powerful weapon that the bad guys have been given,” said Damian Izdebski, founder and director of “techbold” in an interview with “Krone”. This is a huge and far underestimated danger, especially for entrepreneurs.
Cybercrime is a problem for more and more companies, but is underestimated by most small and medium-sized companies. The number of cybercrime has doubled in five years. A study into IT security in Austrian medium-sized companies commissioned by “techbold” shows that most companies expose themselves to a high risk. Hackers today have completely different tools at their disposal than they did three years ago. “We all talk about artificial intelligence and how great it is, what you can do with it. But you have to remember that the bad guys can use these tools too, and even better than normal users.”
Russia’s role has changed
Many things that hackers did manually in the past with great effort can now be fully automated and rolled out perfectly. The best example of this is phishing emails. These can no longer be recognized as such nowadays and are perfectly made. “This is the biggest change in the last two years. The second is Russia’s role. Before the war, hacking was also a criminal offense in some form in Russia. Not only is it now not a criminal offense, but the criminals have been called upon by President Vladimir Putin to wage cyber war against Western European companies.”
The middle class has a problem
“I think the problem is the same everywhere,” says Izdebski. “We see the biggest shortcomings in companies with between ten and a hundred employees, i.e. in Austrian medium-sized companies. These are often owner-managed companies that do not have an IT manager and are dependent on an external IT service provider.”
“In Austria, the landscape of IT service providers is very fragmented. There are hundreds of little one-man shows. And there are also a number of small companies with two or three technicians who somehow try to keep their customers’ IT systems running. Overall, this shows that mid-sized companies are not particularly well positioned when it comes to IT security.”
IT security is not a wall that you only put up once
The fact that awareness about cybercrime is often lacking among small and medium-sized companies is not least due to the fact that media reporting focuses on large companies, giving the impression that small companies are less affected. Many people also do not realize that IT security does not work like a house wall that you build for thirty years. “IT security is something that you have to maintain on a daily basis.” Reacting only when something has happened is not a good security concept. The goal should be to deter attacks, Izdebski said.
“If you don’t have a backup, you have to pay”
Cybercrime is a business model. The criminals steal or encrypt data and demand ransoms. A third of midsize businesses don’t have backup, Izdebski explains. “If you don’t have a backup, you can only pay more.” The second finding is that half of the firewalls are not configured correctly. It is not about large investments, but about a few thousand euros with which the security standard can be significantly increased.
Politics is also being appealed to. Izdebski believes that in the medium term, a company’s IT security should be monitored in the same way as its financial stability. As with the financial balance sheet, companies must prepare an annual report or have its security checked by a specialist.
Source: Krone
I am Ida Scott, a journalist and content author with a passion for uncovering the truth. I have been writing professionally for Today Times Live since 2020 and specialize in political news. My career began when I was just 17; I had already developed a knack for research and an eye for detail which made me stand out from my peers.
