Why is cybercrime on the rise?

Cyberthreats do not just grow – they explode!
❕350,000 new malware every day.
❕A hacker attacks every 39 seconds.
❕$1.5 trillion industry.

But why is cybercrime on the rise?

🌀Trading – data gathered from a cyberattack can be sold on the dark web. Credit card data sells for up to $110, and full medical records sell for up to $1,000. Almost all data that is confidential or needs to be securely held can be sold.

🌀Extortion – even if the data does not have value to others, it will have value to the organisation that generates it, such as data that is required to conduct day-to-day operations. Ransomware attacks can encrypt this data and offer the decryption key on payment of ransom (usually in untraceable cryptocurrency). There are organisations that paid even $1 million to unlock their computers. DDoS attacks can also be similarly monetised, demanding a ransom to call off the attack.

🌀Employment – threat actors offer their services to others for a fee and can earn salaries as high as $1 million per year. They can be hired to engage in Sabotage, IP Theft, Industrial Espionage, Cyberwarfare.

🌀Services – Threat actors develop cyber threats, such as ransomware or a botnet to launch DDoS attacks, then package them as services and advertise them on the dark web like legitimate Software as a Service (SaaS) offerings, which less proficient attackers can use. The amount of money involved and the relative ease with which an attack can be monetised make an attack on your organisation inevitable.

Be mindful of cyberattacks both personally and professionally.

📚Source: av-test.org; securitymagazine.com; raconteur.net