SAN FRANCISCO, April 17, 2018 – Back in 1995, I first started researching the lives and friends of Kevin Mitnick as an author’s assistant for what would turn out to be a best-selling book. Although I wondered what I was getting myself into, I wanted to know who these cyber hackers were, why they broke into systems, and more importantly, I wanted to learn from them.
This need to understand your enemy in cyberspace has become abundantly clear again at the RSA Security Conference this year (Some 23 years later if I’ve done the math right).
During Monday’s pre-show activities, two companies in particular revealed chilling research uncovered during their security and investigative operations and data collection.
Let’s start with the value attributed to cybercrime and crimeware. At an analyst dinner sponsored by Bromium (the book’s publisher), Dr. Michael McGuire, senior lecturer, University of Surrey estimated the market is easily worth $1.5 trillion, based on interviews with convicted cyber criminals.
“That’s the GDP of a mid-sized country,” he says. “And that’s a very conservative estimate.”
Cybercrime-as-a-service platform managers can earn up to $2 million a year, individual high-earners make up to $166,000 a month, and middle-earners make a mere $75,000 a month, according to his calculations.
Makes you wonder if we (the good guys) are working for the wrong side. But then consider the “dark side” of criminal endeavors involving this much money: kidnapping, coercion, jail time, even murder accompany criminal enterprises of this value. The funds are even being used to fund terrorism in an economy that is so strong it could break the financial system if it were to be brought down, Dr. McGuire conjectures.
Lately, specific cyber crime activity has been shifting away from ransomware and damage-based attacks to accessing stolen computing power to mine bitcoins, according to another equally-compelling report unveiled by Comodo’s Threat Research Labs earlier in the evening. Back door attacks, which are needed to continue to access the hijacked computer for its bitcoin computing power, are also spiking upwards, according to the report.
The report results, delivered by Comodo senior scientist Kenneth Gears, also shows that greed is not the only motivation behind cyber attacks. On a large display screen, Gears pointed out distinct hikes in regional cyber attacks in South America, Mexico, Canada, the Koreas and Iran (among other countries) during times of political turmoil.
Gears adds “Cyberspace reflects human activity, whether it be an election or conflict.”
Recent Comments