Crime Has Become Cybercrime

Cybercrime is in the headlines. - whether it is a ransomware attack, a huge data breach, theft of intellectual property, or the unavailability of service, ‘cyber’ is playing an increasingly important role for both enterprises and individuals alike.

Nowadays, nearly all crimes have an element of cyber to them and we’re seeing more ‘traditional’ criminals get into the cybercrime industry.

However, this isn’t just bandwagon jumping; there are actually some very good reasons why the world of cyber makes a lot of sense to criminals.

Lowering Barriers to Entry

Go back ten years or so and ‘hacking’ knowledge was limited to a few select individuals that understood technology. It wasn’t easy to find experts that were willing to be “hackers for hire”, and for those new to the industry, acquiring such skills wasn’t an easy task either.

However, in recent years, the barriers to entry have gotten significantly lower due to a few key factors:

1. Availability of online marketplaces. Online marketplaces have become commonplace and provide a convenient place where hackers for hire can advertise their skills to bidders. These can encompass a broad range of services such as DDoS attacks, botnets, and targeting of individuals or businesses, as well as custom services.

2. As-a-service. Taking a cue from legitimate businesses, cybercriminals are beginning to remodel their organizations for greater efficiency. This has resulted in the rise of “cyber-crime-as-a-service”. For example, Petya & Mischa ransomware-as-a-service (RaaS) was launched in July 2016. This platform encourages distributors to generate high returns by enticing them with the cybercrime equivalent of performance bonuses.

If distributors generate less than five bitcoins in a given week, then they only earn 25% of the ransom paid. However, if the weekly payment is over 125 bitcoins, then they can potentially keep 85% of it. Through such initiatives, the RaaS business model has proven to be highly lucrative, for both the providers and the distributors, and there’s no sign that the these operations will go away anytime soon.

3. The rise of cryptocurrency. The third leg of the stool is made up of crypto currencies such as bitcoin, which allow payments to be made anonymously. This allows cyber-crime service providers to sell their wares easily, and also allows cyber-criminals to extort money from their victims more effectively.

Profit and Loss

Another aspect contributing to the rise in cybercrime is the increase in potential profits. The cyber-crime market is lucrative because of the extent to which things have gone digital. Everything from finance, to healthcare, to national infrastructure is connected in some way or another. On top of this, the introduction of IoT and smart devices has resulted in an explosion of connected devices, each of which presents a potential money-making opportunity for a clever hacker.

The abundance of connected devices gives criminals an advantage because there will always be unsecured, unpatched, or simply insecure targets. Attacks can be targeted against particular businesses, or can indiscriminately affect companies of all sizes and within all verticals.

There are also some cases where a criminal could potentially make as much profit targeting individual consumers as they could from attacking large enterprises. By targeting individuals, hackers further lower the bar to entry, as no pre-qualification needs to be done on the target.

Key Takeaways

The growing number of criminals taking advantage of lucrative cyber money-making opportunities will unfortunately only continue to grow. Therefore, it is more important than ever that enterprises and individuals take appropriate steps to protect themselves from cyber-attacks. Here are few tips to bear in mind:

  • User education and awareness is the first, and arguably the most important, line of defense. For example, knowing not to click on suspicious links could prevent a potential infection entirely.
  • Segregating critical systems and assets is also a good defensive measure. In the event that a user does click on a link, having segregated systems will prevent infections from spreading.
  • Have robust detection and response controls in place, which are enhanced by threat intelligence, is also critical so that infections can be detected quickly and remedial action taken immediately to minimise impact.
  • Finally, the importance of backup processes cannot be forgotten or neglected. If the worst does happen, it’s often better to wipe systems and reinstall from a clean, trusted backup than try to fix the mess.

CSO Online:

You Might Also Read:

Cyber Criminals Have Access To Weapons Grade Hacking Tools:

Police Can’t Reduce Cybecrime:

Cybercrime Is A Boardroom Issue:

 

 

« Is The US Constitutional Right To Free Speech Threatened Online?
IoT For Business & Creating 'Digital Twins' »

Infosecurity Europe
CyberSecurity Jobsite
Perimeter 81

Directory of Suppliers

TÜV SÜD Academy UK

TÜV SÜD Academy UK

TÜV SÜD offers expert-led cybersecurity training to help organisations safeguard their operations and data.

North Infosec Testing (North IT)

North Infosec Testing (North IT)

North IT (North Infosec Testing) are an award-winning provider of web, software, and application penetration testing.

LockLizard

LockLizard

Locklizard provides PDF DRM software that protects PDF documents from unauthorized access and misuse. Share and sell documents securely - prevent document leakage, sharing and piracy.

Syxsense

Syxsense

Syxsense brings together endpoint management and security for greater efficiency and collaboration between IT management and security teams.

Authentic8

Authentic8

Authentic8 transforms how organizations secure and control the use of the web with Silo, its patented cloud browser.

SecureNow Insurance Broker

SecureNow Insurance Broker

SecureNow is a commercial insurance broker based in India. Services offered include Cyber Risk insurance.

Mobile Mentor

Mobile Mentor

Mobile Mentor is an independent provider of enterprise mobility solutions in New Zealand and Australia.

Beachhead Solutions

Beachhead Solutions

Beachhead's SimplySecure is a configurable, web-based management tool allowing you to remotely secure vulnerable mobile devices in your organization.

Consult Hyperion

Consult Hyperion

Consult Hyperion is an independent strategic and technical consultancy specialising in digital identity and secure electronic transactions.

KLDiscovery

KLDiscovery

KLDiscovery is a global leader in delivering best-in-class eDiscovery, information governance and data recovery solutions.

Cyber Security Centre - Daffodil International University

Cyber Security Centre - Daffodil International University

Cyber Security Centre, DIU is a non-profitable organization which is focused on applied research in cyber security.

Billington CyberSecurity

Billington CyberSecurity

Billington CyberSecurity is a leading, independent education company with an exclusive focus on cybersecurity.

NetWitness

NetWitness

NetWitness empowers security teams to rapidly detect today’s targeted and sophisticated attacks with unparalleled visibility.

Gunnison Consulting Group

Gunnison Consulting Group

Gunnison Consulting Group serves the Federal Government with high quality IT consulting services.

Ciphertex Data Security

Ciphertex Data Security

Ciphertex is a leading data security company that specializes in portable data encryption and privacy protection storage systems.

Privacy Compliance Hub

Privacy Compliance Hub

Privacy Compliance Hub provide an easy to use platform with a comprehensive data protection compliance programme including training, information, templates and reporting.

Security Risk Advisors (SRA)

Security Risk Advisors (SRA)

Security Risk Advisors deliver cybersecurity services to leading companies in the Financial Services, Healthcare, Pharmaceuticals, Technology and Retail industries.

Hive

Hive

Hive is a leading provider of cloud-based AI solutions to understand, search, and generate content, and is trusted by hundreds of the world's largest and most innovative organizations.

ESProfiler

ESProfiler

Enterprise Security Profiler. Empowering CISOs with clarity & confidence in their security programme by visualising capabilities, usage and spend against their key threat priorities.

TerraEagle

TerraEagle

Terraeagle is a boutique cyber security services company providing tailor-made solutions. Our core competency is in SOCaaS, MDRaaS & and Incident Response Retainer Services.

Seiber

Seiber

Seiber are a UK based Cyber Security company who provide consultancy and training services. Our objective is to stop bad things happening to good people.