Cybercrime is any criminal activity that involves a computer, network or networked device.

While most cybercriminals use cybercrimes to generate a profit, some cybercrimes are carried out against computers or devices to directly damage or disable them. Others use computers or networks to spread malware, illegal information, images or other materials. Some cybercrimes do both -- i.e., target computers to infect them with a computer virus, which is then spread to other machines and, sometimes, entire networks.

A primary effect of cybercrime is financial. Cybercrime can include many different types of profit-driven criminal activity, including ransomware attacks, email and internet fraud, and identity fraud, as well as attempts to steal financial account, credit card or other payment card information.

As cybercriminals might target an individual's private information or corporate data for theft and resale, it's especially important to protect backup data.

Each security rating vendor evaluates specific factors and has assigned weightings as to how those factors affect the scale and produced security rating.  

Cybersecurity ratings scales consider a wide range of factors that contribute to an entity’s security posture. These factors may include software vulnerabilities, patch management practices, network architecture, historical breach data, and more. 

Several factors are often weighed based on their relative importance. For example, a history of data breaches may carry more weight than the number of open ports on a server. The weighting of criteria helps create a more accurate representation of an entity’s overall security.  

For people who are interested in a cybersecurity career or those who want to develop their skills in the industry, a short bootcamp is a good place to start. These carefully constructed programs allow students to deepen their general knowledge of online safety, as well as learning more about specific threats such as Trojan viruses, identity theft, malware and more. You will be trained in building cyber resilience into business systems and be informed of new developments in the world of internet security. Students can choose to graduate within three or six months. Whichever option you prefer, you’ll leave with the expertise necessary to minimize the risk of cyber-attacks.

Whether you want to develop your existing talent or boost your career with new skills, continuing your education can prove to be a life-changing experience. Here’s a closer look at the best ways to start learning cybersecurity.

Cybersecurity Ventures expects global cybercrime costs to grow by 15 percent per year over the next five years, reaching $10.5 trillion USD annually by 2025, up from $3 trillion USD in 2015. This represents the greatest transfer of economic wealth in history, risks the incentives for innovation and investment, is exponentially larger than the damage inflicted from natural disasters in a year, and will be more profitable than the global trade of all major illegal drugs combined.

There are billions of smartphone users worldwide, and none of them can completely avoid cyberattacks. Spam, phishing, malicious apps, and ransomware are only some of the threats that mobile device users face today -- and the attack techniques get more sophisticated every year.