What’s been done to fight cybercrime in East Africa

East Africa attracts millions of tourists every year. Over the past 10 years, its earnings from tourism have doubled. Compared to the rest of Africa, the region is experiencing healthy economic growth. This makes it a promising investment destination.

Factors like regional tourism, movement of workers and technology development have catalysed East African integration and cross-border banking.

Many cross-border banks originate from Kenya with branches across the region. One example is Kenya’s Equity Bank, which relies heavily on digital technology. The digital space has many positive attributes but the threat of cybercrime and insecurity is prevalent.

Cyber criminal RAT busted by cops

Police forces around the UK have arrested nine people as part of an international operation targeting users of a remote access trojan

A website that sold more than 14,500 copies of a remote access trojan (RAT) to cyber criminals in 124 countries has been taken down, and nine people arrested in the UK, following an international effort spearheaded by the North West Regional Organised Crime Unit (NWROCU) with support from the National Crime Agency (NCA) and Australia’s Federal Police force (AFP).

33 Alarming Cybercrime Statistics You Should Know in 2019 Read more at: https://www.thesslstore.com/blog/33-alarming-cybercrime-statistics-you-should-know/

Social media is playing a growing role in cybercrime this year — here are the top cybercrime stats to know about this $1.5 trillion (and growing) industry as we move into 2020 

If you’re looking for the most up-to-date cybercrime statistics, you’ve certainly come to the right place. (We really like our numbers around here.) 

For businesses and organizations, cybercrime is all encompassing — and its collective impact is staggering. Not only does cybercrime leave a mark financially, but it also has a significant impact on an organization’s services, reliability, and reputation in the eyes of the public, shareholders, and even your own employees.

Cyber-criminals are the new entrepreneurs in an age of the "feral" Internet of Things

Cyber-criminals are the new entrepreneurs of the 21st Century: intelligent business people who have identified innovative ways to capitalise on others’ failings. They succeed because the attack surface is expanding and security hasn’t been built into networks and devices from the ground up.

That was one of the starker suggestion from speakers at a Westminster eForum conference on cyber-security last week.

RM400m lost to cyber crime in 10 months, say police

KUALA NERUS, Nov 2 — The increasing cases of cyber crimes in the country have resulted in losses of more than RM400 million in the first 10 months of this year, said police Crime Prevention and Community Safety Department director Datuk Seri Rosli Ab Rahman.

He said 9,686 cases were reported from January to October this year, compared to 9,442 cases in the same period last year.

Most of the cases reported this year were in Selangor, which has 1,897, followed by Johor (1,374 cases), Kuala Lumpur (1,264 cases) and Negeri Sembilan (784 cases), he told reporters after a ‘Townhall Discussion’ at Universiti Sultan Zainal Abidin (UniSZA) here today.

Police database flagged 9,000 cybercrime reports as 'security risk'

Thousands of reports of cybercrime were quarantined on a police database instead of being investigated because software designed to protect the computer system labelled them a security risk.

The backlog at one point stretched to about 9,000 reports of cybercrime and fraud, some of them dating back to October last year. The reports had been made to Action Fraud and handed to the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau (NFIB), run by the City of London police.

Cybercrime Tool Prices Bump Up in Dark Web Markets

A report reveals data, services and toolkits available for cybercriminals are becoming more expensive and sophisticated.

Prices have been rising in the last two years for longstanding tools available on the Dark Web to help bad actors commit cyber attacks and fraud, alongside newer innovations that are emerging to bolster crimes like ransomware and SIM swapping, new research has found.

Keeping track of these trends in dark-web markets for the tools and data cybercriminals depend on to commit nefarious acts can be a key indicator of where the next attacks will occur, according to a new Flashpoint report, “Pricing Analysis from Goods in the Cybercrime Communities.”

Cyber-criminals are threat to society, warns forensics boss

A senior manager at Eurofins, the UK's biggest forensic services provider which was hit by a cyber-attack in June, has warned the country to "ready itself" for further attacks.

A ransomware virus infected the firm's computer systems, laboratory work was suspended for seven weeks and police investigations and trials were delayed.

In his first interview since the incident, Mark Pearse told BBC News it could happen to any organisation.

Familiarity is the enemy on the war on hackers and cyber crime

The revelation that a friend or local business has been hacked is old news nowadays.

A few years ago, the idea that unknown assailants might have successfully penetrated your social media account or compromised files in an office or hospital would have prompted gasps of trepidation and disquiet - not anymore.

Cybercrime is everywhere in 2019, and growing into an ever larger threat with each passing month. It is estimated that online criminal activity will cost the world €6 trillion annually by 2021, up from €3 trillion in 2015.

Are you victim of cybercrime? Do not hesitate to report to Dubai Police

Dubai: Dubai Police have reminded residents to report online fruad using the hassle free e-Crime platform without the need to visit a police station.

“This Self-Service (e-crime portal) allows the public to record a complaint regarding cybercrimes. To facilitate the procedures, please fill out the form and ensure that you have as much information as possible, so that we can help you as quickly and as best as possible. Note: This service is specific to crimes happened within the geographical scope of Dubai city,” Dubai Police tweeted.

An ‘Old-School Hacker’ Fights Cybercrime

You probably know better than to plug a USB flash drive from an unknown source into your computer. It could infect your machine with malicious code. But would you think twice about a cord? You should.

Kevin Mitnick hands me an iPhone charging cable. Like a magician, he asks me to inspect it. It looks kosher. He plugs it into a laptop. Then he picks up a different computer and commandeers the laptop, including its web camera.

Unlike a magician, he shows me how he did it. The USB end of the cable has been retrofitted with a tiny hardware implant. With a Bluetooth transmitter in his hand, he injected keystrokes into the “victim’s” computer, which downloaded and installed malware from the internet.

Cyber crime risk in free public WiFi

Cyber experts fear that the free Wi-Fi in public places could act as an invitation to cyber criminals who hide beneath the veil of the Internet's anonymity and therefore, identifying the culprit will prove difficult for investigators.

While announcing the go-ahead for the free Wi-Fi scheme on Thursday, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said that with 11,000 hotspots, the project will be the biggest initiative of its kind not just in India but the world.

Once rolled out, the facility will allow smartphone and PC users to avail free Internet services within a 50-metre radius at parks, mohalla clinics and markets.

Don't be the next cybercrime victim in UAE

Despite heightened awareness drives, several people - young and old - still fall victim to cybercrimes, according to the Sharjah Police. Worse, many of them are reluctant to report incidents because they are too 'ashamed' of having been duped.

In 2018, more than 90 cases of cybercrime have been logged, but the police said there could possibly be more since many incidents remained unreported.

A victim who lost Dh2 million, for example, didn't approach the police.

Expert tips on how to keep online identity in Windsor safe after increase in fraud Social Sharing

Statistics Canada's release of 2018 police-reported crime statistics showed a 45 per cent increase in fraud in Windsor.

There were 160 incidents of cyber crime reported to police locally — roughly anything that uses a computer or data to commit crime. 

• Cybercrime is going up across Canada and most cases remain unsolved
• With ransomware on the rise, RCMP urging victims to 'be patient with police'

Alleged Silk Road Drug Dealer Arrested in the United States

United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York Geoffrey S. Berman announced the arrest of alleged dark web drug dealer Hugh Brian Haney in a press release published on July 18.

Per the release, Haney has been charged with money laundering. He allegedly used cryptocurrency to launder more than $19 million of profits earned selling illegal drugs on the now-defunct darknet market Silk Road. Berman commented to the development:

Cybercrime seen to be getting worse: The time to act is now

Is the risk of becoming a victim of cybercrime increasing? Most people in North America and Europe think it is, based on the surveys that I’ve been looking at. Earlier this year the European Union published the results of its latest consumer survey on internet security in which 87% of internet users agreed that the risk of becoming a victim of cybercrime is increasing (see the Resources link below for details of EBS480: Special Eurobarometer 480: Europeans’ attitudes towards Internet security).

New SA Police division to target cybercrime and financial fraud

The surging use of technology in crime has prompted South Australian police to establish a new division dedicated to cybercrime and financial fraud.

The new Financial and Cybercrime Investigation Branch began operations last week and involves 90 staff, including forensic accountants, digital analysts and expert investigators.

It has absorbed a number of areas previously dealt with by the Commercial and Electronic Crime Branch.

Police Minister Corey Wingard said the unit would have the ability to respond to an evolving criminal environment.

Securing Your Corporate Email System

When it comes to your email address, you might presume that only you can send an email that originates from that address. Similarly, when you receive an email, you might presume that whoever owns the email address it claims to originate from has sanctioned that message. However, there is nothing in the original standards for email that guarantee either of these things. In reality, this aspect of electronic mail works very similarly to physical mail. A sender address might be on the envelope, but that alone proves nothing.

Of course, as email grew in popularity, solutions were devised to address this problem, but since they are not part of the core standards, they remain optional. It requires careful configuration on both the sender’s and receiver’s side to make it possible to verify the authenticity of sender information.

Cyber Crime Widely Underreported Says ISACA 2019 Annual Report on Cyber Security Trends

ISACA, one of the world’s oldest cybersecurity organizations and a global network of over 460,000 IT professionals, produces an annual “State of Cybersecurity” report that tracks cyber security trends and emerging threats. Part two of the 2019 edition has a number of interesting revelations, the biggest of which is the apparent scope of underreporting of cyber crime.

Kenya, Africa's Cybercrime Preparedness Found Weak

African governments are not well equipped to deal with cybercrime attacks increasing their vulnerability to loss of data and money through hacking.

According to the Global Cybersecurity Index (GCI) 2017, African governments need to consider policies that support continued growth in technology sophistication, access and security, and adopt national cybersecurity strategies.

FTSE 250 firms exposed to possible cyber-attacks, report finds

The average FTSE 250 company exposes 35 different avenues of attack for would-be hackers, according to a report, despite the vast majority having “serious issues” with keeping business-critical systems up to date.

According to the cybersecurity company Rapid7’s report, created by scanning for systems and devices used by FTSE 250 corporations that are visible on the public internet, the 35 different “attack surfaces … [are] neither good nor bad, but each exposed node … potentially boosts the opportunity for attackers to gain a foothold.

Ghana police to set up two cyber crime units

In line with their objective of dealing effectively with cyber crime, the Ghana Police is set to erect two cyber crime units to add to the existing one at their headquarters in Accra.

The new cybercrime units which will be situated in Takoradi and Kumasi will serve the Northern and Southern sectors respectively. 

This was made known by the Deputy Director of the Cyber Crime Unit of the Ghana Police CID Department, DSP Emmanuel Eric Gyebi, at a forum organized by the Ghana Insurers Association at the Mensvic Hotel in Accra.

Police investigates fake social media competition

The Post Fiji and Police’s Force Cyber Crime Unit are currently investigating a fake social media competition.

The company this afternoon issued a statement advising the public of a fake Post Fiji competition with misleading information via social media advising members of the public to attempt and be in the draw to win valuable prizes.

Post Fiji says it is not conducting such a social media competition and thus, anyone who receives such notifications should refrain from responding or participating in it.

Authorities Dismantle Transnational Cybercrime Group

An international cybercrime network that tried to steal an estimated $100 million has been taken down in a coordinated multinational effort.

Prosecutors and law enforcement officials from the United States and Europe, speaking at a news conference on Thursday in The Hague, say that criminals used malware to infect tens of thousands of computers worldwide, capturing online banking credentials from unknowing victims in a bid to extract their money.

The scheme took place between October 2015 and December 2016. A virtual assembly line of skills and services by cybercrime specialists made the fraudulent work possible, prosecutors contend.

German police shut down one of world's biggest dark web sites

German police have shut down one of the world’s largest illegal online markets in the so-called dark web and arrested the three men allegedly running it, prosecutors said on Friday.

The “Wall Street Market” (WSM) site enabled trade in cocaine, heroin, cannabis and amphetamines as well as stolen data, fake documents and malicious software.

The encrypted platform had more than 1m customer accounts, over 5,000 registered sellers and more than 60,000 sales offers, according to Frankfurt prosecutors and affidavits filed by US prosecutors in a federal court in Los Angeles.

Europol Now Going After People Who Bought DDoS-for-Hire Services

If you were a buyer of any online DDoS-for-hire service, you might be in trouble.

After taking down and arresting the operators of the world's biggest DDoS-for-hire service last year, the authorities are now in hunt for customers who bought the service that helped cyber criminals launch millions of attacks against several banks, government institutions, and gaming industry.

Europol has announced that British police are conducting a number of live operations worldwide to track down the users of the infamous Webstresser.org service that the authorities dismantled in April 2018.

FACEBOOK LET DOZENS OF CYBERCRIME GROUPS OPERATE IN PLAIN SIGHT

FACEBOOK'S FAILURE TO moderate bad behavior on the sprawling online world it created, what with political trolls, extremist content, and livestreamed acts of horrific violence, has received a torrent of criticism. But researchers have found that the social media giant is also failing to police a far more basic and decades-old internet problem among its users: plain old cybercrime.

Researchers at Cisco's Talos security division on Friday revealed that they'd uncovered 74 Facebook groups devoted to the sale of stolen credit card data, identity info, spam lists, hacking tools, and other cybercrime commodities. The researchers say those groups sat in plain sight, with names like Spam Professional and Spammer and Hacker Professional, attracting 385,000 members in all. Anyone could find them with a site search for basic terms like "carding" or "CVVs," a reference to the security codes on the back of credit cards.

FIN6 cybercrime actor adds ransomware to its repertoire

Traditionally associated with payment card theft, the cybercriminal group FIN6 has expanded its operations to apparently include ransomware attacks using the malicious encryption programs Ryuk and LockerGoga, according to researchers.

Investigations by the FireEye Intelligence research team and the company’s Mandiant division have revealed that FIN6’s ransomware activity dates back to July 2018, and has reportedly caused tens of millions of dollars in damage. Such behavior is a far cry from the group’s more traditional m.o., which involves using malware to steal card data from retail and hospital companies, and then selling that information on underground marketplaces.

Hackers Steal $19 Million From Bithumb Cryptocurrency Exchange

Hackers yesterday stole nearly $19 million worth of cryptocurrency from Bithumb, the South Korea-based popular cryptocurrency exchange admitted today.

According to Primitive Ventures' Dovey Wan, who first broke the information on social media, hackers managed to compromise a number of Bithumb's hot EOS and XRP wallets and transferred around 3 million EOS (~ $13 million) and 20 million XRP (~ $6 million) to his newly-created accounts.

The hacker then distributedly transferred the stolen digital assets to his different accounts created on other cryptocurrency exchanges, including Huobi, HitBTC, WB, and EXmo, via ChangeNow, a non-custodial crypto swap platform does not require KYC/account.

Scammers stole £1.2bn from British bank customers in 2018

Year on year figure up by 25%, and firms must reimburse victims, says UK Finance

Scammers stole £1.2bn from UK bank customers in 2018, according to official data, with a near-500% leap in counterfeit cheque fraud, indicating some criminals are resorting to old-school techniques.

The headline fraud figure is up almost a quarter on 2017, when the total was £968m. There was a 50% leap, to £354m, in the amount lost to scams in which people are duped into authorising a payment to an account.

Why shame prevents people from reporting cybercrime

Embarrassment has become an obstacle in the Halifax Regional Police force's efforts to understand how much cybercrime occurs in the municipality. 

People are frequently so ashamed of getting duped online that they don't come forward and report the crime to police, said Staff Sgt. Kevin Smith.

That means cybercrime is woefully under-reported, making it difficult for police to know what is happening online and to identify culprits.

Facebook Squares Up to Law Enforcers with New Privacy Focus

Mark Zuckerberg has detailed his vision for the future of Facebook: a “privacy-focused” messaging and social platform which will see the News Feed marginalized as users switch to encrypted WhatsApp and Messenger communications.

The new privacy-centric platform he hopes to build over the course of the next few years will be focused around several key principles: private interactions; end-to-end encryption; “reducing permanence”; safety; interoperability; and secure data storage.

“I believe the future of communication will increasingly shift to private, encrypted services where people can be confident what they say to each other stays secure and their messages and content won't stick around forever. This is the future I hope we will help bring about,” said Zuckerberg in a lengthy post.

IBM’S WATSON NOW FIGHTS CYBERCRIME IN THE REAL WORLD

YOU MAY KNOW Watson as IBM's Jeopardy-winning, cookbook-writing, dress-designing, weather-predicting supercomputer-of-all trades. Now it's embarking on its biggest challenge yet: Preventing cybercrime in finance, healthcare, and other fields.

Starting today, 40 organizations will rely upon the clever computers cognitive power to help spot cybercrime. The Watson for Cybersecurity beta program helps IBM too, because Watson's real-world experience will help it hone its skills and work within specific industries. After all, the threats that keep security experts at Sun Life Financial up at night differ from those that spook the cybersleuths at University of New Brunswick.

Removing the cyber criminal’s mask of anonymity

Cyber crime is a serious business in Asia Pacific, with over US$1.7 trillion lost to cyber attacks last year, equating to 7% of the region’s GDP and representing around a third of overall global cyber crime.

This is largely because digitalization is rapid and technologies to combat cyber threats aren’t being implemented quickly enough to keep up; as fast as detection and prevention techniques improve, cyber crime continues to become more sophisticated. Attitudes towards cyber security are outdated, with a survey of IT and business decision makers revealing that although half have experienced a cyber attack, only a fifth see cyber security investments as a business differentiator.

Biggest IT security threats in South Africa

As businesses and consumers alike become increasingly reliant on technology and online systems for efficiency and entertainment, they become more vulnerable to attackers.

And the more services you are subscribed to, the greater your potential attack surface.

Cybercrime is therefore a growing problem around the world, and the types of attacks are constantly evolving to dupe more people or exploit new vulnerabilities in existing systems.

Mumbai-based Italian Firm Loses Rs 130 Crore to Hackers in Con Job

Mumbai: In perhaps the biggest such online heist, a Mumbai-based Italian firm lost Rs 130 crore to suspected hackers who allegedly convinced its local managers that the money was needed for an acquisition, police said Monday.

The hackers sent emails to the head of the Indian subsidiary of the firm through an email account, which looked similar to that of the group CEO, a police official said.

The hackers also arranged a series of conference calls to discuss about the acquisition, following which heads of the Indian subsidiary transferred the amount in given bank accounts time to time, he said.

Feds take down a half-billion dollar cybercrime forum after 7 years online

WITH THE RISE and fall of dark web black markets like Alphabay and the Silk Road, law enforcement officials have repeatedly warned that even anonymity tools like Tor and cryptocurrencies won't hide criminals from the law's long reach. But the most recent takedown of another massive cybercrime forum carries a different lesson: It's still possible to create an online black market even outside of the dark web's cover, grow it to a half-billion dollar operation, and get away with it for the better part of a decade.

On Wednesday, the Department of Justice unsealed an indictment against no fewer than 36 people, accused of acting variously as administrators, moderators, and sellers of illegal hacking and fraud services on a black market forum known as Infraud. A coordinated action by Homeland Security Investigations and cops in Australia, Britain, France, Italy, Kosovo and Serbia arrested 13 of those named, and took down the website itself, replacing it with a seizure notice.

Defence chief issues cyber crime warning

Australia's military chief has warned European officials of the ever-present threat posed by cyber espionage and intellectual property theft.

Chief of the Defence Force Angus Campbell said the "ineffectively governed" internet had fuelled an "extraordinary uptick" in international espionage, economic theft and corporate crime.

"The opportunities that the connected world provide are very significant, with the potential for very significant damage, both to companies and to institutions that we hold dear and also to states more broadly," General Campbell told an international policy institute in Brussels overnight.

Banks review security measures as cyber crime menace grows

Criminals are getting more sophisticated, warn SA's major banks, as they pilot debit-order system DebiCheck to fight SIM-swap fraud

SA’s major banks are reviewing their online security measures to combat increasingly sophisticated cyber crime.

Absa,  which recently had to refund one of its clients the R3.1m   stolen from his account as a result of SIM-swap fraud,  says this is just an isolated incident.