Globally, the cyberattack headlines keep getting grimmer and grimmer: Hackers Steal Bank's Valuable Data. Big Box Store
Says Millions of Credit Card Records May Have Been Snatched. US Indicts Chinese Army Officers for Hacking Industry Trade Secrets
and most recent of all Wannacry Ransomware infiltrates windows platform. Cyberattacks of the past year have been rattling the IT world,
making executives and IT managers wonder how vulnerable their own networks might be. And the incidents are increasing. A recent
global survey PwC conducted with CIO Magazine and CSO Magazine shows that the number of attacks reported by midsize companies
has jumped 64% since a year ago. Today's hackers are farsighted and more tenacious now when it comes to midsize and smaller
companies. To avoid these losses, companies need to take a hard look at their defenses up front. Yet a big reason companies often fail to
invest in cybersecurity is that they see it as discretionary spending, not a business imperative. With profitability being top of mind,
businesses tend to be more inclined to invest in growth activities than defensive measures. This paper employs an exploratory research
design on existing literature with a focus to generate a workable hypothesis to be tested in future empirical studies. The objective of the
study is to create awareness of cyber-attacks and to explore the impacts of cyber-attacks on e-businesses. This will be followed by
identification of cyberattack techniques that can be used against e-business. This will be followed by recommendation of preventive
mechanisms that should counter cyberattack attempts since most e-businesses are focused more on reactive rather than proactive
measures. The results of this paper will be used to advice e-business stakeholders on how to improve cyber security and how to prevent a
cyberattack.
There is a lack of knowledge throughout as to what
cybercrime and its threats are. The Government's efforts
to encourage e-businesses and discourage cybercrime are
virtually unknown and the majority feels that it would
have little impact on their company. Many E-Businesses
do not perceive themselves to be in any great danger and
so do not take it as seriously as they should.
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