A report Europol's Internet Organized Crime Threat Assessment (IOCTA) published today details the 8 most prevalent cybercrime trends for which researchers have seen an increase in incidents since the start of the year.
Europol's report shows an upward trend in the volume, scope and material of cybercrime, and complements the UK authorities' announcements earlier this year that internet crime has overtaken traditional crime, for the first time in their country's history.
1: Crime-as-a-Service
Europol reports that the digital underground scene is shifting towards a Crime-like business model service or Crime-as-a-Service, with various individuals and groups that specialize in specific crimes and provide technical support services and the necessary tools, of course for a fee.
Thus illegal sales of weapons, hacks on-demand, DDoS rental services and many different exploit kits have been observed.
2: Ransomware
If you read iguru.gr you will have come across very often reports on issues related to ransomware. In addition to ransomware, Europol also reports that banking trojans have been very popular this year.
3: Χρήση data για το Έγκλημα
Recent hacks, violations and data leaks have filled the internet with personal data used by fraudsters to make other violations, frauds and even blackmail.
4: Payment Scams
Europol reports that it had a very large number of fraud complaints, which were organized by organized crime groups with hacking on ATMs, EMVs and NFC cards.
5: Sexual abuse of children
Ο μεγάλος αριθμός των online εργαλείων και υπηρεσιών που παρέχουν περίπλοκη και άθραυστη end-to-end encryption, along with anonymous cryptocurrency payments has led to “an escalation in live streaming of child abuse.”
6: Move to Darknet
Όλο και περισσότερες δραστηριότητες εγκλήματος μετακινούνται προς το darknet (ή darkweb), ένα μέρος του Διαδικτύου για την οποία χρειάζεστε ειδικό λογισμικό όπως το Tor και το I2P να έχετε πρόσβαση. Οι εγκληματίες φυσικά εκμεταλλεύονται την ανωνυμία που τους παρέχει το network.
7: Social engineering
Europol reports that spear-phishing episodes of high-value targets increased in 2016, and highlights the increase in scams targeting CEOs.
8: Digital crypt-coins
Europol reports that Bitcoin has become the de facto currency for blackmail payments. This is also the reason why the agency created a Bitcoin Money Laundering Department (Bitcoin Money Laundering Division) earlier this month.
For more information, please see the IOCTA Europol assessment from the link below:
