https://phys.org/news/2018-03-spain-captures-alleged-mastermind-12b.html

Spain arrested a person reportedly involved in hundreds of cyber-attacks in which billions of euros were stolen. The man is considered to be the mastermind of these attacks. He used malware like cobalt and carbanak to loot the people. Since 2013, the gang of this person attacked banks, e-payment systems and financial institutions of more than 40 countries. Now the mastermind has been apprehended.  The cobalt malware use led to stealing of EUR 10 million per heist. So there was the major monetary attack on the financial institutions.

Criminal used to send phishing emails to employees of banks with some attachment. Once the attachment got downloaded, criminals could access the infected computer from remote and could access the servers related to ATMs. The person is identified as Denis K. public-private partnership is necessary to take the menace of cybercrime. The recent attack on Atlanta shows that public networks are also vulnerable to cybercrimes. Arresting mastermind is an effort to be lauded but the network of cybercrime is very big. It needs to be pulled out from the roots. All the organizations are vulnerable to cyber-attacks and IP are at risk. There is need to pay attention.

 

https://yourstory.com/2018/03/response-cybercrime-major-challenge-businesses-ibm-study/

According to the new IBM study, cybercrime is on the rise but the response to these attacks is not adequate. Ponemon Institute, a leading IT firm conducted a study in association with IBM and it has been come to known that 3/4th of business organizations do not know how to take the threat of cybercrime.  Moreover, 69% of the business organizations said they do not have any measure in their firm to tackle cyber-attack. Indian firms are equally vulnerable to these attacks.

Though almost all of them admitted that cybercrimes are getting severe day by day, nearly half of them have only informal or ad-hoc plan to tackle the issue.

Many companies consider investment in artificial intelligence a barrier so they do not invest in IT network prevention much.  The high attrition rate of IT professionals and lack of annual budgets is another factor business organizations do not go for securing their data from the criminal breach. Another study was done on Indian firms which report that Indian firms recorded 12.3% more data breach in 2017. No one is spared; all the countries and business organizations are vulnerable to cybercrime which is increasing with the passing years.

http://btob.co.nz/tech-talk/cyber-crime-rise/

According to the new survey, cybercrimes are continuously increasing. Norton SMB cybersecurity conducted a survey of more than 500 businesses. It is found that frequency of cyber-attacks has increased from 18% in 2016. The actual monetary loss has been decreased in 2017 but the number of crime is continuously increasing. These attacks have the major effect on small and medium businesses. SMBs have become more aware of the potential of these attacks so they are taking proactive steps to protect their IP from cybersecurity.

New Zealand is on the verge of introducing the privacy bill. Hopefully, after the bill, the SMBS will understand the gravity of the matter and will take cybercrime as a serious threat to their organization.

Here are the steps that businessman can take to prevent themselves

• Do not wait for cybercrime to happen. Use proactive methods
• Businesses need to invest in security and backup to reduce the incidences of cybercrime
• There should always be up to date software.
• Consider employees as part of the project. Effective participation will prevent future attacks.
• Do not use easy passwords as they can easily be guessed by attackers.

 

https://www.newsbtc.com/2018/03/27/symantecs-internet-security-threat-report-highlights-cryptos-increased-use-cyber-crime/

Symantec has released its 23rd internet security threat report which says that there have been more attacks associated with cryptocurrency. The report says that the crypto jacking was the largest trending attack of 2017 in which computer system is used to mine the cryptocurrency though the owner of the machine remains unaware of it. There are two easy benefits for the attacker. One is that great deal of anonymity is maintained and other that regular CPUs can be used to mine the coin, unlike bitcoin which needs specialized equipment.

All the cyber criminals resorted to cryptocurrency because their price shoots up in 2017. So there was a lot of profitability for the cybercriminal. In addition to that criminal need just a few lines of code to mine the currency. The report mentions ransomware as another major online attack resorted to in 2017. In this hackers make the system non-functional and then they demand money, usually in the form of cryptocurrency, to unlock the system. These kinds of incidents are increasing day by day. In 2018, already such kind of attack has been made on the city of Atlanta. These attacks are only going to increase in the year 2018.