#cyber

Cyber crime : Cyber Forensics to tackle current and emerging Threats

 

The meeting held in 22^nd October at Delhi highlighted the global crime trend in 195 member countries and the role of cyber forensics to tackle this emerging threat worldwide. Financial and cybercrimes are found to be the world’s leading crime threats and also those projected to increase most in the future. The findings that are part of INTERPOL’s first-ever Global Crime Trend report saw more than 60 per cent of respondents rank crimes such as money laundering, ransomware, phishing and online scams as high or very high threats which are prone to increase in the next three to five years.

Cyber forensics is not just limited to white collar crimes but perhaps the most  disturbing trend is the related rise in online child sexual exploitation and abuse (OCSEA), which 62 percent of respondents expect to increase or significantly increase – the third highest-ranking future crime threat. The demand for, and production of, OCSEA materials also increased significantly during the pandemic. While drug trafficking has traditionally dominated crime threat lists, cyber- enabled financial crime has increased precipitously in recent years, notably throughout the pandemic and during and following lockdowns, rates of digitalization accelerated, with professional and personal activities performed almost exclusively from home and online.

You may also like to read about the emerging threats in cybercrime as well as the growing trend of cyber enabled forensic crimes.

Cyber Forensic Lab at Truth Labs

Truth Labs is a full fledged cyber forensic lab conducting examinations of exhibits related to cyber crime and assisting various law enforcement agencies in India.  Truth labs follows Interpol standard operating guidelines to ensure quality of services.

Cyber safety and data tracking.

 

Oblivious to the breadcrumbs of personal information being left behind in the online data sources, individuals fall prey to various online data theft. Such sources include social media profiles.

Commonly, data tracking is made possible by cookies on websites and default permissions setup for mobile applications installed. Website associated cookies may be required for its basic functioning and for quick subsequent access by remembering user details, but often they also have third party cookies for user tracking to improve experience. While third party cookies help deliver relevant content, they also gather personal data and preferences. Unnecessary permissions to access data on phones may provide certain mobile applications free access to user’s data.

Data breaches (e.g.- Twitter data breach in December 2021) have been a regular event despite the increased vigilance against cyber-attacks and have caused large databases vulnerable to theft and sale to interested unauthorised parties who then can misuse such data for stalking, misinformation and other targeted attacks on individuals and companies.

 

Truth Labs has examined cases involving hacking, blackmail by falsification or manipulation of data procured with unconsented access from devices of individuals, not surprisingly by persons very close to them with intentions of misuse.

Truth Labs has examined cases of email phishing in organizations that suffer significant loss due to bank transaction frauds where money was transferred to foreign accounts by way of data and communication manipulation.

Truth Labs has also examined cases of ransom-ware attacks, where root cause analysis indicated email phishing and weak password hacking resulting in network compromise

Can Cyber Forensics tackle cyber crime?

 

How to stop criminal activities whose returns far outweigh any fear of punitive actions which all the international law enforcement agencies have in place? The efforts to cut down cyber crimes is approaching hopeless proportions, with a 15% annual growth rate. At that rate, these clever cybercrooks are even bound to increase their bounties by around $10.5 trillion by 2025.

Broadly the cyber crimes causing concern to the society today are listed below:

• Pandemic-related Phishing

• Ransomware Attacks

• Increase in Business Email Compromise (BEC) Attacks

• Mobile Malware

• Cyberoptimism

• AI to IoT in Cybercrime

• Supply Chain Attacks

• Data Breaches

• Crypto jacking

• Targeted Attacks

• Encrypted Communication Platform

• Raising usage of Bitcoins

• DDoS Attacks

• Outdated and Open-Source Vulnerabilities

• Social Engineering

• RDP (Remote Desk Protocol) Attacks

Some of the cyber crime trends to watch for are worth mentioning

As it is with the proverbial two sides for every coin, there are two sides to cyberspace. Cyberspace is a great place for commerce, societal advancement, and innovation. However, the same place harbors crooks who are ready to pounce any chance they get. Advanced technology and systems give an edge to businesses and organizations, but it means newer and more advanced methods for cybercriminals to attack too, leading to a marked increase in dangerous cybercrime trends.

Cyber crime presents the trickiest types of criminals to deal with. Armed with sophisticated tools of the trade, they are getting more audacious every day, threatening businesses of all sizes. Bigger organizations have deeper pockets for more advanced security tools to face cyber threats, but small business enterprises are not always so lucky. Thus, staying aware and vigilant at all times can go a long way in preventing these cyber attacks from occurring, and it is also helpful to know what IT security solutions are perfect to protect your site

Protecting your Identity online from cyber crime.

 

All over the world, societies are increasingly reliant on the identification information. Identity-related information about individuals is used e.g. for banking, shopping, traveling, and collecting social assistance. Increasingly, such information also includes biometric information. The more our society becomes computerized, the more avenues are open for cyber crime to exploit the vulnerabilities of those systems to commit identity-related crimes, which generate significant profits for criminals each year, with a far-reaching impact not only on economies and online commerce but also on individuals who fall victim to it. Where identity-related information is obtained by criminals, it can be abused to launder money,  commit fraud and enable illicit activities for organized crime purposes, including acts of corruption, human trafficking, migrant smuggling, and even terrorism.

Millions of dollars can be stolen using false identification either in highly sophisticated single events or through millions of smaller incidents. In the hands of unscrupulous criminals, these illegally derived profits can be used to commit further crimes.

Law enforcement agencies and cybersecurity professionals are constantly working to develop innovative solutions to prevent and mitigate cybercrime. However, it’s a collective responsibility to stay vigilant and protect our personal information to minimize the risks.

Remember, by staying informed, practicing good cybersecurity hygiene, and seeking assistance from experts when needed, we can all contribute to creating a safer online environment.

The Internet as a hunting ground for cyber criminals.

 

Crime has also moved online, and cyber-enabled financial crimes, such as business email compromise, CEO fraud (where cybercriminals impersonate executives), e-commerce scams and investment fraud, have escalated in nearly every region. Today’s ransomware attacks target ‘big game’ targets, including major corporations, governments and critical infrastructure. To maximize harm and illicit profit, strategies have shifted to techniques like double extortion, where victims’ data or files are both encrypted and threatened with public exposure, compounding the risks of business disruption and reputational damage.

While world governments have their hands full dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic, shady cyber heist operators are busy working the other way creating a vast fortune, to the tune of $6 trillion by 2021 end alone.

If that total amount is a country’s GDP, it’s next only to the income of the US and China as all of us know India is at $3 trillion mark and planning to touch $5 trillion in next 5 years after crossing the economic indicators of Britain.

Technology keeps evolving at a rapid pace, so do cybercrooks. Apart from newer forms of cyber threats, even the oldest tricks in the book are not completely useless for these cybercriminals. They take these tricks out of the box and make modifications and updates to bypass security measures especially created for them.

Truth Labs has performed a number of forensic investigations of financial fraud and accounting for public sector and corporate clients.