Technology is transforming just about every aspect of New York City — including the way that criminals operate.

Before he left office last year, former New York City Police Commissioner Bill Bratton explained how gangs are now turning to cybercrime to achieve their goals.

“We’re seeing many of our gangs here in New York...turning away from dealing with drugs and other types of crime, and focusing on getting very adept at cyber-related crime — the false identification cards, credit cards,” Bratton stated on an AM talk show. “That’s a growing concern.”

For New York City business owners, this should be an alarming announcement. Cybercrime is already a major problem in New York, as data breaches increased by more than 60 percent last year.  Now, cybercrime is becoming more organized on a local level — meaning business owners need to start preparing PoS systems, ATMs, tablets, computers and data centers for targeted attacks from local community members.

Of course, gangs could start to combine cybercrime with physical crime, too. For instance, hackers could use geolocation tracking data to follow trucks on deliveries or even see where business owners are going before and after work. So this could be a very dangerous development.

Here at Apex Technology Services, we maintain that business owners shouldn’t rely solely on the government for cybersecurity protection. Businesses should take active measures to protect their digital assets, and working with a managed services provider is one way to do this cost-effectively.

To learn more information about how Apex can protect your business from local — and international — cybercrime, click here.  

A new breed of hacktrepeneurs has awoken and they have little to fear and everything to gain by infecting as many companies as possible and extorting money from them. Apex Technology Services stands ready to protect your company regardless of whether it’s located in New York City; White Plains, New York; Connecticut; Australia; Europe; or anywhere else. Our full suite of cybersecurity and IT support services is at your disposal, enabling you to spend less time worrying about and more time growing your business.

To ensure your security, consider one of our most popular services — Auditing & Documentation — which pinpoints vulnerabilities in your infrastructure, process flow and internal security procedures.