Cybercriminals continue to increase the activity of their actions in runet. In the first quarter of this year, the number of cyber attacks in Russia increased by 32%, Kommersant
reports . According to information security experts, about a third of the attacks were carried out in order to obtain personal data of citizens of the country in one form or another.
Experts say that the stolen data is then either sold on a darknet, or it serves as a base for hacking into accounts of citizens whose information was stolen. In 2018, 53% of crimes related to information security were committed with the aim of obtaining material benefits. In 33% of cases, the motive of the attacks was to receive personal data, and in 28% - to obtain access and passwords to accounts.
Anyway, the ultimate goal of the overwhelming majority of cyber attacks is material enrichment. Director of the Group-IB project direction, Anton Fishman, clarifies that in the sphere of the shadow Internet, personal information can be of high value. At the same time, the process of selling illegally obtained data is simplified.
The most popular cyber attack tools are still malicious software (63%), the second place is occupied by miners (23%).
As for penetrating the victim’s computer, a very wide range of tools and methods are used here. Phishing emails are most often sent (38%), social engineering is second in popularity (29%). In 20% of cases, hacking is used directly, when criminals use software "weak spots", errors in protection mechanisms, software vulnerability, etc. 22% of cyber attacks are DDoS attacks and brute force.
In the first quarter of 2018, a greater number of cyber attacks were committed on individuals (28%), mainly with the help of spyware, miners and malicious software for advertising. In most cases, hacked users either did not use any anti-virus software on the computer at all, or suffered because of their own carelessness. 16% of cases of cyber attacks accounted for by government agencies of different levels.
With regard to phishing and social engineering, attackers are constantly inventing new ways to ingratiate themselves and deceive the victim. For example, recently hackers have been offering users to fill in a form for a fee. The initiator of the survey, as a rule, exhibits a well-known brand. Moreover, no malicious software is used in this case, users who have decided to fill out a questionnaire are simply asked to pay a transfer fee. Yes, there is no logic in this, but many users are so gullible that they pay a commission.
Large and medium-sized organizations are protected from cyber attacks better than private individuals or small businesses. Understanding this, attackers are increasingly using social engineering techniques. In order to find the victim in the corporate environment and to gain confidence in themselves, cybercriminals are looking for data of a person in the network or steal the necessary information.
The value of personal data is constantly growing. In order to better protect the information of its citizens, the European Union adopted a new law on GDPR. It, among other provisions, establishes norms and rules for data processing at the state level.
By the way, the other day, the Central Bank of Russia ordered banking organizations to report incidents involving violations of the protection of information when transferring funds. Also, banks will report on the economic damage caused by cyber attacks.
The information that banks will provide the Central Bank,
includes data on the amounts for the reporting period of time for which cybercriminals attempted, as well as what amounts they managed to steal.
According to information provided by analytical agency Risk Based Security, in the first half of last year about 2.2 thousand data leaks
were recorded , which led to the theft of more than 6 billion personal data. This is information on the situation in the world. Russia is in eighth place by the number of unauthorized access of cybercriminals to the data of its citizens.
At the same time, the vast majority of the stolen data belongs to the corporate sector. Most often, usernames, email addresses, physical addresses and passwords flow to the Internet. The largest amount of data was posted on the network in China (over 3.8 billion).