In its Internet Organized Crime Threat Assessment (IOCTA)
report released today, Europol has detailed today's top 8 most prevalent
cybercrime trends, for which investigators have seen a rise in detected
incidents since the start of the year.
The report, which highlights an upward trend for volume,
scope and material cost of cybercrime, comes on the heels of UK authorities
announcing earlier in the year that cybercrime has surpassed traditional crime
for the first time in their country's history.
Europol says that the digital underground is shifting
towards a Crime-as-a-Service business model, with various individuals and
groups specializing in a niche crime and providing technical support and
service for that crime alone using online services.
From illegal weapons sales to on-demand hacks, and from
DDoS-for-Hire services to exploit kit packages, you can buy online almost any
type of cybercrime service these days.
If you read Softpedia's Security News section, you can hardly
go one day without reading a report on ransomware-related topics. Besides
ransomware, Europol also says that banking trojans have been a popular form of
malware this year as well.
Recent hacks and data breaches have thrust troves of data in
the public eye, which crooks are leveraging for other hacks, fraud, and even
extortion.
Europol says it received a large number of fraud complaints,
which were traced back to organized crime groups hacking ATMs, EMV, and
contactless (NFC) cards.
#5:
Online child sexual abuse
The large number of online tools and services providing
complex and unbreakable end-to-end encryption, along with anonymous payments
supported via crypto-currencies has resulted in "an escalation in the live
streaming of child abuse."
More and more crime-related activities have now moved to the
Darknet (or Dark Web), a portion of the Internet for which you need special
software like Tor and I2P to access. Criminals are taking advantage of the
anonymity these networks provide to go about their business unabated.
#7:
Social engineering
Europol says that spear-phishing incidents aimed at
high-value targets have gone up in 2016, and it highlights the increase in CEO
fraud (BEC scams) attacks.
#8:
Virtual currencies
Europol says Bitcoin has become the de-facto standard
currency for extortion payments. This is also the reason why Europol
established a Bitcoin Money Laundering Division earlier this month.
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