Cyberheist: The biggest financial threat facing American businesses since the meltdown of 2008

by Stu Sjouwerman

Not since the markets melted down, and the recession sank its icy hooks into the business climate in 2008, has American business faced a threat as serious as the current cybercrime scene. Small to medium enterprises have been hard-hit in particular, amounting to tens of millions of dollars being stolen out of their bank accounts.

This book is meant to educate you about the dangers of conducting business online. In particular, it covers phishing, a particular type of social engineering attack delivered by email or over the Internet.

Our goal is to help you recognize the increasing danger that individuals and organizations face when they use the Internet, especially when conducting financial activity, and take proactive measures to protect your organization. These risks include theft of sensitive information, theft of goods and services, loss of intellectual property, and exposure to fraudulent online money transfers that empty your bank a cyberheist.

Don't become a statistic. Read this book and apply the strategies and techniques described within to protect your organization from a potentially devastating cyberheist.

240 pages, Kindle Edition

First published April 19, 2011

About the author

STU SJOUWERMAN is the founder and executive chairman of KnowBe4, Inc., the world’s largest security awareness training platform serving over 70,000 organizations globally. A serial entrepreneur with more than 30 years in the IT industry, he was a co-founder of Sunbelt Software and was named the 2023 Excellence in Customer Service Award Executive of the Year. He currently leads Cyberheist News, delivering cybersecurity insights to IT professionals worldwide.

He is also the founder of ReadingMinds.ai, an AI-native research platform that conducts emotionally intelligent voice interviews at scale—turning hours of calls and weeks of waiting into overnight insights. That work reflects his broader thesis: when agents can sense context, reason with memory, and act across channels, marketers stop firefighting and start compounding.

Sjouwerman is the national bestselling author of Agent-Powered Growth and other books.

Reviews

[Josephine Olok · Rating 3 out of 5]

A comprehensive reference on almost everything related to cyber crime. It is a big book (more textbook than anything) and it took me a while to get through but I am so glad I stuck with it. It covers the fundamentals - types of attacks, scams, vulnerabilities, the cost of cyber crime, and tools available to help. It also provides a great list of references. Best used as a reference book.

[Jon Zastera · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good book for stakeholders looking for a deep dive into the topic. Beginner book for IT staff or someone new in cyber security.