In some countries, rumors of cybercriminals with Ransomware are reportedly again being reported again. These viruses spread via e-mails, which automatically send themselves out from infected e-mail accounts and send out infected e-mails to all e-mail contacts of a virus mailbox infected with the virus. The virus is very dangerous because after opening a fake e-mail, the virus installs deeply into the computer and encrypts access to the disks by blocking access to the contents of the disks. I wrote scientific publications on this subject.
In view of the above, I am asking you the following question: Are cybercriminals now attacking personal and corporate computers using Ransomware viruses again?
Please reply. I invite you to the discussion
Traditionally, ransomware attacks have generally been opportunistic in nature, i.e. indiscriminate spam emails sent out to would-be victims via various infection vectors. But of late, the landscape has seen a shift towards targeted attacks on organisations, particularly the health sector, education and government departments. This has a potentially higher turn-over. Consider the Nayana attack (https://www.foxnews.com/tech/ransomware-attack-costs-south-korean-company-1m-largest-payment-ever) which saw victims part away with more than $1 million dollars in a single attack. Other similar attacks seen this year include SamSam attacks exhorting thousands of dollars in a single attack.
However, I think the devastating effects of ransomware are being felt in the aftermath of the attacks on large corporations, which has resulted into losses of millions of dollars in terms of loss of production and recovery efforts. Consider the losses incurred in the aftermath of the NotPetya attacks on Maersk, FedEx, and Merck which costed more than $300 million in each case. Even though not getting the attention it deserves, ransomware attacks are still a major security today. In "Cryptovirology: The Birth, Neglect, and Explosion of Ransomware", authors give very helpful insights on the trends regarding this type of malware.
Unfortunately, yes! Ransomware is the most significant cyber threat to SMBs.
According to new research from Datto Inc., revenue lost to downtime can cripple a small business with the average attack being 10 times more costly to the business than the ransom itself costing a business $46,800 on average and the ransom requesting around $4,300 per attack. Attacks are also more frequent and are expected to increase. More than 55 per cent of MSPs stated their clients experienced a ransomware attack in the first six months of 2018.
More details can be found in this blog post: https://www.techradar.com/news/ransomware-is-the-most-significant-cyber-threat-to-smbs
Attacks have always been aimed at the weakest link that users are, so hackers look for new ways attacks.
Dear Friends and Colleagues of RG
In some countries, rumors of cybercriminals with Ransomware are reportedly again being reported again. These viruses spread via e-mails, which automatically send themselves out from infected e-mail accounts and send out infected e-mails to all e-mail contacts of a virus mailbox infected with the virus. The virus is very dangerous because after opening a fake e-mail, the virus installs deeply into the computer and encrypts access to the disks by blocking access to the contents of the disks.
Do you agree with me on the above matter?
Please reply
I invite you to the discussion
Best wishes
Dear Friends and Colleagues of RG
I described the problem of cybercrime in publications:
Chapter Propaganda i świadomość w procesie radykalizacji - wzmacnian...
Chapter Determinanty rozwoju cyberprzestępczych ataków na systemy in...
Chapter Analiza bezpieczeństwa ochrony systemów informatycznych w ko...
Chapter Rozwój złośliwego oprogramowania ransomware jako nowy wymiar...
Article Ochrona transferu danych osobowych w cyberprzestrzeni
Chapter Bezpieczeństwo bankowości internetowej i uwarunkowania elekt...
Chapter Prawno-społeczne determinanty bezpieczeństwa gromadzenia i t...
Article Zagrożenia rozwoju i bezpieczeństwo bankowości elektronicznej
Chapter Przestępczość elektroniczna i kradzież poufnych informacji –...
I invite you to discussion and cooperation.
Best wishes
Dear Friends and Colleagues of RG
Have there been any cybercriminal attacks on home computers, smartphones or computers in companies in recent months?
Please reply
I invite you to the discussion
Thank you very much
Best wishes
Dear Colleagues and Friends from RG,
In view of the above, it is also important to include the following issue in the above discussion:
The main determinants of the development of cyber crime and cyber security.
In addition, the above discussion inspired me to formulate the following questions:
What are the main determinants of the development of cyber crime and cyber security? What are the current trends in scientific research in the field of cybercrime and cybersecurity? Are phising and ransomware viruses still one of the major cybercrime threats?
On the basis of the above considerations and conclusions from the discussion on interesting issues discussed, I formulated the following thesis that synergy and correlation between the development of cybercrime and cybersecurity are multifaceted. In addition, the issue of cybercrime and cyber security belongs to the key determinants of the development of electronic internet and mobile banking as well as data transfer with the participation of new online media, including social media portals collecting and processing personal data of Internet users. In recent years, industry 4.0 advanced data processing technologies have been increasingly used in the field of cybercrime and cyber security.
In the world of living organisms, antigens and antibodies are part of the immune system. They form and develop as a result of attacking the body by microbes and toxins, which they learn to fight and fight. The whole process involves the intelligent creation of an anti-factor for a specific external factor potentially adverse to the body. Similar processes can be considered in the issues of computer viruses and the improvement of anti-virus programs, i.e. in the field of cybercrime and cyber security, to which artificial intelligence technology may be implemented. Therefore, you can consider building intelligent anti-virus programs that, acting on computers and mobile devices such as smartphones, will create some kind of anti-worms, anti-viruses, anti-key-loggers, anti-malicious programs, anti-virus applications etc., when computer viruses and other forms of cybercriminal techniques, malware attack a specific IT system connected to the Internet. According to this concept, it would be necessary to implement artificial intelligence in the field of cyber security. If such solutions arise, there is also a risk that cybercriminals will also start using artificial intelligence to improve the technique of cybercrime attacks. In this way, the rivalry between cybercriminals and IT specialists employed in companies and institutions to ensure and improve cyber security systems, which has been ongoing for several decades, will be continued and will enter the next level of technological competition.
Another issue related to cybercrime concerns Hamer's attacks on Internet users' mailboxes. In recent months, many mailbox users receive strange emails of unknown origin, which are sent as spam from private other email accounts or others with false information. Attachments containing false information are attached to many of these suspicious emails, usually sent by cybercriminals and hackers. Attachments are usually of the WORD * .doc document type, Acrobat Reader * .pdf or other formats, and often contain Ransomware-type viruses. These are very dangerous viruses that encrypt access to a computer's disk. In addition, cyber criminals are increasingly using mailboxes established on the e-mail portal to send infected e-mails to subsequent Internet users by generating fake e-mails so that they look as if a specific user of the mailbox would send e-mails prepared by cybercriminals to their friends. These types of cybercrime techniques are becoming more common. Why are Internet technology companies that dominate the market and offer e-mail services do not improve the security of e-mail communication systems using e-mail boxes to significantly reduce cybercriminals' activity harmful to citizens? A good solution is to encrypt transmitted data and set up strong passwords to log into IT systems in the cloud. In addition, Big Data database systems, technologies for collecting and processing data in the cloud also use other techniques to secure data against the activity of cybercriminals and hackers.
The importance of both Data Science and cybersecurity will grow in the coming years, as technologies of advanced computerized information processing and data teletransmission on the Internet are developing, and these issues are also related to the security of processing, collecting data in the cloud, data transmission on the Internet. Currently, the importance of information technologies etc. related to the technological revolution known as Industry 4.0 is growing. This revolution is determined by the development of the following advanced information processing technologies: Big Data database technologies, cloud computing, machine learning, Internet of Things, artificial intelligence, Business Intelligence and other advanced technologies of Data Mining.
Digitized full knowledge and learning achievements by making knowledge bases available on the Internet create new categories of information security risk on the Internet. In this way, new concepts of information security risk management processes on the Internet are developed. One of the key aspects of managing information security risk on the Internet is the improvement of computerized security instruments for large sets of information gathered in Big Data database systems. In the perspective of the next few years, the issue of managing the risk of information security gathered in Big Data database systems and knowledge bases made available on the Internet, information contained on online information portals and social media portals will become a key problem in analyzing the development of cybercrime and improving cybersecurity instruments.
My research shows that the financial sector belongs to those sectors in the national economy in which the possibilities of using ICT, Internet, Industry 4.0 technologies including artificial intelligence, learning machines, Internet of Things, Business Intelligence, Big Data, Data Analytics etc. are the largest. Some of the ICT, Internet and Industry 4.0 information technologies have been implemented for many years in sales systems, electronic internet and mobile banking systems, for banking analytics, for financial risk management etc. in financial institutions. However, the use of the huge opportunities offered by artificial intelligence in the field of finance is just beginning, but the potential for this use is huge. The key determinants of the development of electronic online banking and security of data transfer on the Internet include the following issues: Development of internet technologies used in business processes. The development of electronic internet banking, including mobile banking developed on mobile devices, including primarily smartphones. Improving techniques for transferring financial and sensitive data over the Internet. Security of data transfer on the Internet. Analysis of techniques used by cyber criminals and improvement of security systems and IT systems risk management processes, data transfer on the Internet. The use of blockchain technology and Industry 4.0 technology to improve cyber security systems.
On the other hand, large commercial banks generate high financial surpluses enabling the implementation of modern integrated IT systems, online banking, Business Intelligence data analysis systems, data processing platforms in Big Data database systems, etc. There have already been situations of unethical use of modern ICT solutions, analysis of comments contained on social media portals, during which the bank verified the customer data entered in the loan application also by scanning the information that the potential borrower enters in the social media comments. This informal verification took place without the knowledge of the potential borrower and then may be the basis for suing the bank. However, the bank's client is not always aware that he can be monitored in such a way by public trust institutions as the bank should be. Of course, these types of cases, which we know from the media is supposedly a margin of the entire banking, which can be one of the categories of a new type of unethical practices typical of the so-called Shadow Banking. However, only part of this type of information gets into the media. Perhaps it is only so-called the "tip of the iceberg" of this problem. The situation is similar in the situation of cybercriminals' attack on banking ICT systems or electronic banking platforms. If this type of event can be kept secret, customers do not find out. This is because the media only receives information about some of these types of events.
Below I have described the key determinants confirming the formulated research thesis. To the above discussion I would like to add the following conclusion formulated as a summary of my earlier considerations on this topic: the security of private and personal data transferred on the Internet. Apparently up to 90 percent data downloaded from websites to Big Data database systems for their analysis is unstructured. When reading and copying all text data and possibly other data for the purposes of Data Analytics, Data Science, Business Intelligence, sentiment analysis of Internet users' opinions etc. carried out in Big Data database systems, usually all available data is downloaded. It is up to the analyst person how and how the data filtering method will be used, whether he will act ethically or remove sensitive personal data of people described on individual websites, including private data read and copied from posts, comments, entries etc. contained on internet forums and social media websites. Private data contained in posts, comments, entries, etc. contained on internet forums and social media portals are not usually protected against currently used tools, programs used to download, copy data, download full content of websites. Therefore, there is a serious ethical problem regarding this sphere of research and analytics of data downloaded from websites. Technological progress is usually ahead of the necessary legal adjustments.
However, these adjustments may not be sufficient in this situation. It is similar with the issue of cybercrime, which cannot be completely eliminated even by the most perfect legal regulations, because the problem is of a technological and not systemic nature. Therefore, the problem of maintaining the privacy of personal data on websites can be realistically solved basically primarily in terms of refining the technological protection of these data against copying, reading by programs, machines, worms that walk in the background on websites and all contained data is read and copied on these pages. This type of security is improved in financial institutions, including banks developing electronic online and mobile banking, because in these institutions it is currently a key business and image issue. I conduct research in this area, mainly in the field of applications of Business Intelligence analytics conducted in Big Data database systems as well as in the field of secure data transfer on the Internet and cybersecurity in electronic internet banking. The conclusions of the research I published in scientific publications that are available on the Research Gate portal. I invite you to cooperation.
In recent years, one of the key determinants of the development of online mobile banking is the development of internet technologies, ICT information, security technologies for data transfer on the Internet and advanced data processing Industry 4.0. Online mobile banking is growing dynamically because developmental factors still outweigh the factors limiting this development. The main development factors are the reduction of operating costs for banks and facilitation of remote access to banking services, including mobile payments for customers. Currently, the only developmental barrier may be increased activity of cybercriminals stealing data from online banking clients, hacking clients' online bank accounts and robbing clients from financial resources. However, for now, banks are quickly identifying such cybercrime incidents and are gradually improving mobile banking security systems. Another factor limiting the development of online mobile banking may be the number of bank customers interested in this type of banking.
One of the rapidly growing fields of implementation of ICT and Industry 4.0 information technologies into economic processes is online electronic banking and e-commerce. The key determinants of the globally developing e-commerce relate primarily to the implementation of ICT information technologies and advanced data processing technologies, i.e. industry 4.0 typical for the current technological revolution to computerized, automated transaction systems supporting online trading. In addition, the use of blockchain technology for transaction security systems and data transfer on the Internet. The use of ICT information technologies and advanced data processing technologies i.e. typical for the current technological revolution Industry 4.0 to online transaction systems supporting e-commerce already applies to almost all the functioning of online stores, from computerized sales support systems, logistics, accounting, reporting, risk management to Internet marketing activities and improving security systems for online transactions.
Another important determinant of e-commerce development is the development of online mobile banking available on mobile devices and new solutions related to the Internet of Things technology. Online banking is starting to dominate, whose development is determined by technological progress in the field of ICT and Industry 4.0 information technologies. Computerization is also increasingly affecting public sector institutions servicing tax systems and settlements of business entities. In addition, Business Intelligence analytical platforms supporting the management processes of companies operating also in the e-commerce sector have been developed for several years. The analyst of large information sets in Big Data databases is also developing. Big Data Analytics and Data Science analytical systems are also used by businesses operating also in the field of e-commerce. In recent years, new internet marketing instruments have also been developed, mainly used on social media portals, and are also used by companies operating in the e-commerce sector. Internet technology and fintech companies are also emerging that offer information services on the Internet to support marketing management, including the planning of advertising campaigns for products sold via the Internet. To this end, sentiment analyzes are used to survey Internet users' opinions regarding dominant awareness, recognition, brand image, mission and the offer of specific companies. Sentiment analysis is carried out on large data sets downloaded from various websites, including millions of pages of social media portals collected in Big Data systems. The analytical data collected in this way are very helpful in the process of planning advertising campaigns carried out in new media, including social media portals. These campaigns advertise products and services sold via the Internet, available in online stores.
In view of the above, the development of e-commerce is determined mainly by technological progress in the field of ICT information technologies and advanced data processing technologies Industry 4.0 and new technologies used in securing financial transactions carried out via the Internet, including transactions related to e-commerce, e.g. technology blockchain. To sum up, ICT and Industry 4.0 are an important factor for economic development, primarily in emerging knowledge-based economies. In many countries there are investment programs financed also from public funds to activate the development of applications in the ICT and Industry 4.0 industries. In this way, individual developing countries whose economies are largely based on such production factors as technology, information, innovation, entrepreneurship and knowledge build their comparative advantage. Building comparative advantage in knowledge-based economies takes into account investments in new technologies, including Internet, ICT and Industry 4.0 technologies. Investments implemented in modern internet technologies, ICT and Industry 4.0 increase the efficiency of production processes, logistics, management, marketing, risk control etc. in enterprises operating in various branches of the economy. I have described the above issues of various aspects of the application of IT systems, ICT information technologies, including Big Data, Business Intelligence in companies operating on the Internet in my scientific publications available on the Research Gate portal. I invite you to cooperation.
Artificial intelligence and Big Data database technologies can be used in the field of improving cyber security techniques. You can consider building intelligent anti-virus programs that, acting on computers and mobile devices such as smartphones, will create some kind of anti-worms, anti-viruses, anti-key-loggers, anti-malicious programs, anti-virus applications, etc. in situations when computer viruses and other forms of cybercriminal techniques, malware attack a specific IT system connected to the Internet. According to this concept, it would be necessary to implement artificial intelligence in the field of cyber security. If such solutions arise, there is also a risk that cybercriminals will also start using artificial intelligence to improve the technique of cybercrime attacks. In this way, the rivalry between cybercriminals and IT specialists employed in companies and institutions to ensure and improve cyber security systems, which has been ongoing for several decades, will be continued and will enter the next level of technological competition.
In recent years, Industry 4.0 technologies have also been used to improve risk management processes. In addition, the structure of expenditure incurred on improving risk management processes in financial institutions has changed in recent years. While in the 1990s, the dominant risk categories that were subject to permanent improvement, including through the implementation of ICT information technologies for analytics and risk modeling, have been the key risk categories in recent years for which particularly high expenditure is allocated to improving management processes these risk categories are primarily risks related to the development of cyber crime, the risk of data transfer on the Internet, risks related to online and mobile electronic banking. In addition, in recent years, the improvement of risk management methods and systems has been carried out through the implementation of Industry 4.0 advanced data processing technology. For now, high levels of profitability of banking activities related to the development of electronic online banking allow to allocate high expenditures to improve the management of risk categories related to the development of cyber crime, the risk of data transfer on the Internet, risks associated with online and mobile electronic banking. However, this may not always be the case. Competition for classic online banking is growing through the successive increase in the share of cryptocurrencies in transactions carried out electronically. Fintechs are also developing. Therefore, the current development trends of banking in the next decades may change significantly and then there may also be changes in the key barriers to risk management improvement processes.
Technological progress is usually ahead of the necessary legal adjustments. However, these adjustments may not be sufficient in this situation. It is similar with the issue of cybercrime, which cannot be completely eliminated even by the most perfect legal regulations, because the problem is of a technological and not systemic nature. Therefore, the problem of maintaining the privacy of personal data on websites can be realistically solved basically primarily in terms of refining the technological protection of these data against copying, reading by programs, machines, worms that walk in the background on websites and all contained data is read and copied on these pages. This type of security is improved in financial institutions, including banks developing electronic online and mobile banking, because in these institutions it is currently a key business and image issue. I conduct research in this area, mainly in the field of applications of Business Intelligence analytics conducted in Big Data database systems as well as in the field of secure data transfer on the Internet and cybersecurity in electronic internet banking.
The importance of both Data Science and cybersecurity will grow in the coming years, as technologies of advanced computerized information processing and data teletransmission on the Internet are developing, and these issues are also related to the security of processing, collecting data in the cloud, data transmission on the Internet. Currently, the importance of information technologies etc. related to the technological revolution known as Industry 4.0 is growing. This revolution is determined by the development of the following advanced information processing technologies: Big Data database technologies, cloud computing, machine learning, Internet of Things, artificial intelligence, Business Intelligence and other advanced technologies of Data Mining.
However, on the other hand, in recent years, the scale of cybercrime attacks on IT systems of various institutions, including government institutions, on databases of social media portals, on ICT systems of banks, on electronic banking systems has been growing. Cybercriminals are increasingly attacking mobile internet banking systems made available to Internet users and bank customers through mobile devices, mainly via smartphones. Research shows that the scale of cybercrime attacks on IT systems of banks, institutions, etc. is increasing with the use of social engineering combined with perfidiously created malicious software such as ransomware, i.e. encrypting access to data on disks or redirecting users to fake websites of banks and institutions on the Internet to phishing personal data, access passwords to electronic banking accounts and, as a result, to steal money. The development of Business Intelligence business intelligence, Blockchain technology, data analysis in Big Data database systems, artificial intelligence to track movements and attacks made by cybercriminals, for predictive analyzes, etc. can be helpful in the process of improving IT systems risk management. Therefore, the skilful and efficient use of data science technology can be helpful in combating cybercrime, but it all depends on how these technologies will be used and, as a consequence, who will win in the following years in this IT, information "arms race".
Therefore, the key issue for Internet users is the use of cyber security principles. To protect information systems against hacker activity, you need to develop software that blocks hacker interference in information systems. IT system security technologies should be developed, including IT system risk management processes and online data transfer. As part of IT system risk management and data transfer on the Internet, it is necessary to improve the instruments for protecting information stored in databases and data transfer via the Internet. It is necessary to build security systems based on software resistant to attacks of cybercriminals who use malicious software, e.g. sent by e-mail. It is also important to test information systems by conducting simulated hacker attacks. In addition, it is also important to conduct permanent training for employees employed in the organization to warn against emerging new types of computer viruses and new hacking techniques.
Do you agree with me on the above matter?
In view of the above, I am asking you the following questions:
- Why have hackers and cybercriminals been distributing computer viruses via malicious malware recently?
- Why is the level of security in using mailboxes not high? How to increase the level of security?
- What are the currently dominating techniques for securing data transferred on the Internet and stored in cloud database systems?
- What are the key determinants of the security of private data transfer on the Internet?
- Is there a correlation between the issue of private and personal data security and the development of Big Data Analytics conducted on copied data from websites and social media portals?
- What instruments of ICT, Internet and Industry 4.0 information technology are currently improving the issue of security of personal and private data transferred on the Internet?
- Will artificial intelligence be implemented in the field of cybercrime and cybersecurity?
- Is the synergy of the development of computerized information technologies, Data Science analytics and the process of managing IT systems security growing?
- Does digitizing and making knowledge resources available on the Internet create new categories of information security risk?
- What kind of security tools for online data transfer are currently being developed as part of improving electronic online banking systems?
- Will online mobile banking dominate electronic banking in the future?
- Will cybercrime in the following years relate to hacker attacks aimed at devices of the Internet of Things technology?
- Will cyber crime in the future mainly concern Internet of Things technology?
- Will the improvement of the risk management process of data transfer on the Internet in the future apply to mobile devices and the Internet of Things technology?
- How to protect IT systems against hackers who try to hack via the Internet into the internal IT systems of a specific organization, company or public institution to steal important information?
- What are the current trends in scientific research in the field of cybercrime and cybersecurity?
- Are phising and ransomware viruses still one of the major cybercrime threats?
What do you think about this topic?
What is your opinion on this topic?
Please reply
I invite you to discussion
thank you very much
Best wishes
Dariusz Prokopowicz
Dear Prit Kaur, Yes, it is very disturbing. So ransomware viruses are still dangerous. Therefore, it is necessary to improve cybersecurity systems. Best wishes, All the best, Stay healthy!
Dariusz Prokopowicz
CyberCriminals are always trying to hack personal and corporate accounts
Dear Zahid Fazal, Yes you are right. Unfortunately, the problem of cybercrime on a certain scale will continue to exist for many years to come. Unfortunately, there are no perfect systems that provide 100%. cybersecurity.
What do you think about it?
Best regards,
Dariusz Prokopowicz
Agree with you Govt and International community must take notice and actions against the culprits
Dear Zahid Fazal, Yes, it is necessary to improve personal data protection systems as well as control and analysis of disinformation activities conducted on social media portals by organized disinformation groups. Best wishes,
Dariusz Prokopowicz
Dear Zahid Fazal, Thank you for the kind words. I am glad that you share my opinion on this topic. Best wishes, All the best, Stay healthy!
Dariusz Prokopowicz
Recently, some economic entities, including technology and IT companies, operating in the Internet technology sector have been attacked again by cybercriminals using ransomware viruses.
Best wishes,
Dariusz Prokopowicz
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