#BSEC: Staying Alert to the Growing Dangers of Cybercrime

Cybercrime is becoming increasingly dangerous to organizations and individuals alike, according to Chief Supt. Andrew Gould, national cybercrime programme lead at the National Police Chiefs’ Council speaking during the BankSec 2020 virtual conference.

One reason for this is that cybercrime is becoming easier to conduct, with tools more readily available from the internet and able to be deployed without much technical skill. “That barrier to entry to the criminal marketplace is lower than it’s ever been,” noted Gould.

The rise in cybercrime as a service, whereby nefarious actors from across the world can be employed relatively cheaply to help undertake attacks, has been another big factor in recent years.

The kinds of attacks being launched are also becoming more consequential. While ransomware remains the biggest attack vector, with Gould observing that the malware used is “more complex and damaging”, the behavior of cyber-villains becoming “more confrontational.”

Business fraud attacks – in particular, phishing and business email compromise (BEC) attempts, have grown exponentially recently according to Gould. “There are millions of pounds that organizations are losing to this every week which causes tremendous disruption,” he outlined.

Another trend highlighted is that criminals are conducting far more research and planning ahead of attacks, largely as a result of improved security. Much of this is discovering personal information on social media sites in order to launch more impactful phishing messages for example, with Gould stating that people should “consider the kind of information they’re posting and how that can potentially be used against you or your organization by appearing to be more realistic.”

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