Cyber crime

 CYBER CRIME

References:

-        http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/moslive/article-2260221/Cyber-crime-Your-currently-targeted-criminal-gangs-looking-steal-money.html

-        http://www.interpol.int/Crime-areas/Cybercrime/Cybercrime

-        http://www.crime.hku.hk/cybercrime.htm

-        http://www.faronics.com/news/blog/7-types-of-cyber-criminals/

-        http://www.itp.net/586180-uae-faces-high-rates-of-cyber-crime

-        http://vnexpress.net/gl/kinh-doanh/quoc-te/2013/03/my-mat-nhieu-trieu-usd-vi-website-tai-chinh-bi-tan-cong/  

1/ General  knowledge of cyber crime

1.1/ Definition

There are many ways of defining cybercrime in which we find  the two following definition the most suitable:

“Cybercrime is one of the fastest growing areas of crime. More and more criminals are exploiting the speed, convenience and anonymity that modern technologies offer in order to commit a diverse range of criminal activities. These include attacks against computer data and systems, identity theft, the distribution of child sexual abuse images, internet auction fraud, the penetration of online financial services, as well as the deployment of viruses, Botnets, and various email scams such as phishing”

“Cybercrime is criminal activity done using computers and the Internet. This includes anything from downloading illegal music files to stealing millions of dollars from online bank accounts. Cybercrime also includes non-monetary offenses, such as creating and distributing viruses on other computers or posting confidential business information on the Internet.”

1.2/ how we can encounter this kind of crime

Cyber attacks still often begin with your PC being infected with a virus.

These are spread in familiar ways – usually by email – but the attacks are often now cleverly disguised as invoices or even as deliveries scheduled to arrive at a home address.

Once a victim clicks a link or opens a document with invoice details, the infection has begun.

One in ten infections also now come via Facebook. Attacks often spread as videos that fail to play, instead popping up with a message that you need to ‘upgrade your video player’.

If you click the link malicious software invades your computer.

Criminals will harvest passwords and bank details, and ensure that they remain undetected. Then the stealing will begin in earnest.

1.3/ types of cyber crime

There are many ways of categorying cybercrime of which we find the following devision easy to understand and remember most:

1) Script kiddies: A wannabe hacker. Someone who wants to be a hacker (or thinks they are) but lacks any serious technical expertise. They are usually only able to attack very weakly secured systems.

2) Scammers: Your email inbox is probably full of their work. Discount pharmaceuticals, time-shares, personal ads from available women in Russia…sound familiar?

3) Hacker groups:  Usually work anonymously and create tools for hacking. They often hack computers for no criminal reason and are sometimes even hired by companies wanting to test their security.

4) Phishers: Gotten an email recently claiming your bank account is about to expire? Don’t fall for these jerks. They want your personal information and, most likely, your identity, by directing you to a phony websites.

5) Political/religious/commercial groups: Tend to not be interested in financial gain. These guys develop malware for political ends. If you think this group is harmless, think Stuxnet. The Stuxnet worm which attacked Iran’s Atomic Program of Its Nuclear Facilities was believed to be created by a foreign government.

6) Insiders: They may only be 20% of the threat, but they produce 80% of the damage. These attackers are considered to be the highest risk. To make matters worse, as the name suggests, they often reside within an organization.

7) Advanced Persistent Threat (APT) Agents: This group is responsible for highly targeted attacks carried out by extremely organized state-sponsored groups. Their technical skills are deep and they have access to vast computing resources.

 2/ The situation of cybercrime nowadays

* The global cost of cybercrime is greater than the combined effect on the global economy of trafficking in marijuana, heroin and cocaine, which is estimated at $388bn, a new headline-grabbing study reported.

The Norton Cybercrime Report puts the straight-up financial costs of cyberattacks worldwide at $114bn, with time lost dealing with the crime adding the remaining $274bn, while the global black market in the three drugs costs $288bn.

Every second, 14 adults become the victim of some sort of cybercaper, adding up to over a million victims every day, the report from Norton-maker Symantec said, with young men who access the web on their mobiles the most likely victims.

But despite the large number of victims, people aren't doing enough to stop it for themselves. Although 74 per cent of people say they're aware of cybercrime, 41 per cent of them don't have up-to-date security software and 61 per cent don't use complex, regularly-changing passwords.

The most common cybercrime issues are malware and viruses, which have affected 54 percent of those surveyed, with online scams second (11 per cent), and phishing catching 10 per cent of adults out. Cyber-villainy is also on the up on phones, with 10 per cent of adults having been victims of an attack on their mobile, according to the study. The study surveyed almost 20,000 people in 24 countries. ®

* Over half of all UAE internet users, 1.4 million people, have been a victim of online crime in the last 12 months, according to a survey sponsored by Norton by Symantec and conducted by Strategy One. The total number of internet users in the UAE is 2.55m. The figure for people becoming victim to cyber-crime is high for the UAE, according to Tamim Taufiq, head of Consumer Sales MENA, Symantec, because of a lack of education in the region about cyber-crime.

Globally, 44% of online users have been victims of cyber-crime over the last 12 months. (September 18, 2011)

Despite the high rates of cyber-attacks in the UAE, only two out of every ten people affected by a cyber-attack will report it to the authorities, while over half of respondents in the UAE revealed in the survey that they don't have up-to-date security software to protect themselves and their personal information online and only a very small amount of respondents, 8%, said they had security software on their mobile phones to protect them against attacks.

3/ The solution to cybercrime

These are some ways that will help you advoid being hacked:

1. USE DIFFERENT USERNAMES

The sheer number of passwords and usernames required to live a normal online life mean that people often recycle. Cyber criminals can simply use Google to ‘join the dots’, connecting them across all the different online worlds they live in. Fewer usernames makes finding a ‘way in’ far easier.

2. DON'T RE-USE YOUR EMAIL PASSWORD

Your email password is the ‘key’ to all your accounts – if hackers want to access your Facebook account, say, they can reset it via your email. Even if you DO reuse passwords, the one that you should never reuse is your email password. If you do, you’re handing out the keys to be breached, giving hackers access to the information they’ll need to hack your bank account and other networks you use.

3. DON'T ADD STRANGERS AS FRIENDS ON FACEBOOK

Facebook is full of information that can be useful to hackers – including the names of family members, addresses and email details that can fill in crucial ‘blanks’ for identity theft. People still ‘friend’ people they don’t know – not realising they are handing over the ‘keys’ to their online life.

4. DON'T BE FOOLED BY 'CRIES FOR HELP'

Some of the most effective attacks are ‘cries for help’ from friends – such as emails saying that someone is stuck abroad and needs money sent by wire transfer. The emails are actually spam, sent by email from a compromised machine. If it’s someone who travels a lot and their email is hacked, it’s more convincing when you get an email saying that they are stranded abroad and need money. All the hackers need is one person to respond for it to have been worth their while.

5. BE WARY OF ‘FUNNY’ LINKS

Facebook links are often used by cyber criminals – with ‘funny’ videos designed to con people into clicking a link that will infect their machine. Often a ‘video’ link will try to fool people into visiting an infected site or downloading something in the guise of video software. Your only defence is to think, ‘Would my friend really post that?’ So be careful about people you only half-know.

6. BE CAREFUL ON PUBLIC WI-FI

Laptops and phones both ‘remember’ Wi-Fi networks they ‘know’ – so hackers can use this to break in. It can be hard to tell whether a network is real – or  is being run by a hacker who wants to steal your details. If you’re going to use public networks for business, use a laptop because the browser will warn you of security breaches – your mobile won’t.

7. DON’T TRUST PEOPLE YOU DON’T KNOW

Security experts recommend doing an ‘offline test’ – ie, would you do the same thing if you were offline? If you are chatting to someone online and you tell them something, would you have handed the same information to someone you were chatting to in a bar?  In a bar, you at least know who you are chatting to – online, you can never know whether someone is  who they claim to be.

8. USE ANTIVIRUS SOFTWARE

Antivirus software is not a Holy Grail but it helps you to deal with known problems – although machines can still fall victims to new attacks, and will be easy prey until the antivirus companies respond to the attack.

9. USE EXTRA PASSWORDS

‘Two-factor’ passwords, such as a password plus a secret code where you only hand over one or two letters at a time, offer an extra layer of security. Many sites offer this as an option, but people tend to resist except when they’re made to do it – eg, by their bank. Other banks provide customers with a device that uses your password to generate a random code number that allows access to your account.

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