The current security threats have grown in scope and severity. There are now thousands — or billions at risk if the security of information security is not properly managed. Beyond that cybersecurity, it will be the defining factor in many of the conflicts that will be fought internationally in the near future.
Criminals are attracted by the web for many different motives like the rest of us. Some are just looking to make things go wrong; others seek to earn money, while others are looking to bring change to the world.
Some are lone-wolf gangs, Others are members of a sophisticated criminal group, and others even have their respective governments’ tacit support and approval. However, thanks to the nil-border online nature, you may be fortunate enough to realize that any (or all of these groups may be at your door.
As the growth of the internet has created new business models and permitted established companies to sell their products and connect across the world, it also has created new kinds of crimes that were not previously available and also given the existing crime a boost, allowing criminals to carry out their crimes from anyplace around the globe. The time is good to join a Masters in Cyber Security course and learn all the things related to security.
As the internet has grown over the last few decades, the forms of cybercrime have evolved as well. If you go back a decade or two and the majority of online criminality was a kind of online vandalism, such as destroying websites and similar. This is still a problem; however, the majority of online crime is about becoming rich.
As online crime has grown, it has also evolved into a number of overlapping groups which pose different threats for organizations of different sizes. These groups use distinct tools, goals, and specialties, and understanding this will help you defend yourself against these groups.
Criminal organized
The majority of cybercrime is committed by the equivalent of criminals who are opportunists. These are the small-time criminals on the internet and the criminals you’re most likely to meet or even feel the impact of on your own. It could be a group of people or small groups of criminals who work together. They could have started playing with computers out of curiosity like the script kiddie and then began using these methods to raise funds.
These people are increasingly not requiring advanced technical expertise to start since there are a variety of tools for download for no cost or at a minimal cost in Dark Web forums. Hackers who aren’t experienced can purchase malware to steal data for a relatively inexpensive cost in the event that they know where to look, or they can contract botnets for as little as around a hundred dollars to send out millions of emails that contain offers for counterfeit products or even with malware in.
Organized crime
They will be an unorganized structure and could employ a variety of contractors, including some from the disorganized criminal group mentioned above. They may have experience in the development of hacking tools and weaknesses, while others conduct the attack, and others may even use the money to launder it. In the middle of the internet is a cybercriminal boss, with the concepts as well as the targets and contacts.
These are the organizations that have the ability to launch attacks against law firms, banks, and other large companies. Cybercriminals organized by a group are more often launching targeted, long-term attacks rather than random scattered-gun operations.
Hacktivists
These could be groups of individuals or individuals motivated by a certain agenda or perhaps a specific issue or even a larger campaign. In contrast to most cybercriminals, hackers do not seek to make money through their activities. Instead, they are trying to shame an organization or a person and gain publicity. Their targets could differ. Rather than an accounting system for a company or a database of customers and databases, they could be looking to gain access to embarrassing emails sent by chief executives and other corporate officials or put their logo on your website or disrupt the content on your social networks.
Terrorists
Despite all the hype, the danger posed by cyber-terrorism is still very low due to the fact that they lack the knowledge or resources to build and deploy efficient cyber-attacks, which only the most powerful nations could dream of building. According to Europol states: “While [Islamic State] sympathizers have shown willingness to purchase hacking tools, and other services on the online underground, their internal capabilities are not as impressive.”
State-backed hackers
While normal criminality accounts for the majority of cyber-attacks, The internet’s use by state-sponsored hackers has been extensively discussed in recent times. However, the story is much longer as well. The most well-known Stuxnet worm was developed by both the US and Israel intended to stop Iran’s nuclear program more than ten years ago.
Threats to the insider
While all attention is focused on external dangers, is it possible that businesses have forgotten the threat that is nearer to their own home?
There are many criminals in the public eye. Insiders have system access, are aware of the routines, and could be able to spot weaknesses within the system. Documents that are confidential to the company kept on shared drives, as well as inadequate internal controls for who has access to data, means that the greedy or disgruntled insider may still pose one of the greatest dangers to businesses. But this may not be about money. Staff members can also be targeted by criminals to do whatever they wish to do. Security agencies have repeatedly warned that foreign governments could create honey traps to pressure employees into giving up passwords or data. Also, due to their vast access to the IT systems of corporations, IT employees are often targeted in this manner.
Lines with blurred edges
In fact, there are plenty of similarities between these groups in terms of the people they employ as well as the tools they employ in their attacks and even the victims they select. In fact, organized crime is content to take methods and tools from hackers who are sponsored by the state (indeed they can wear two different hats) and, as these hacking techniques become more well-known, they are slowly filtered down the chain until the most novice criminals can latch on to the techniques.
