CYBER CRIME STATISTICS FOR 2013 & 2020

Every second at least 12 internet users in the WORLD fall victim to cyber criminals and the number keeps increasing every year, it has been revealed. A surge in viruses targeting mobile apps is a new disturbing trend in cyber-attacks. 

A significant number attacks – 19 percent – target financial assets, while the number of cybercrimes organized with the purpose of mere mischief-making is now extremely low. 

According to one of the recent surveys by computer security firm Kaspersky Labs and B2B International, 62 percent of respondents had at least one incident of cybercriminals attempting to steal financial information. 

The convenience of online shopping and banking services are among the major risk factors for end users

According to experts at RSA security, cybercrime continues to improve its techniques and the way it organizes and targets victims. The RSA Anti-Fraud Command Center (AFCC) has developed the following list of the top cybercrime trends it expects to see evolve:

• As the world goes mobile, cybercrime will follow
• The privatization of banking, trojans and other malware
• Hacktivism and the ever-targeted enterprise
• Account takeover and increased use of manually-assisted cyber attacks
• Cybercriminals will leverage Big Data principles to increase the effectiveness of attacks

Cybercrime activities are globally diffused, financially-driven acts. Such computer-related fraud is prevalent, and makes up around one third of acts around the world.

Another conspicuous portion of cybercrime acts are represented by computer content, including child pornography, content related to terrorism offenses, and piracy. Another significant portion of crime relates to acts against confidentiality, integrity and accessibility of computer systems. That includes illegal access to a computer system, which accounts for another one third of all acts.

The McAfee security firm estimated that cybercrime and cyber espionage are costing the US economy $100 billion per year, and the global impact is nearly $300 billion annually. Considering that the World Bank estimated that global GDP was about $70,000 billion in 2011, the overall impact of cybercrime is 0.04 percent of global income, an amazing figure.

Cyber criminals are improving ways to be non-traceable and to be more resistant in their malicious structures to take down operations by law enforcement. Hackers are improving their infrastructure, for example adopting peer-to-peer protocols, or hiding command and control infrastructures in anonymizing environments, such as the Tor Network.

What’s the end user impact of cybercrime? What’s the perception of the risks related to principal cyber threats?

The Symantec security firm has just released the 2013 Norton Report, the annual research study which examines the consumers’ online behaviors, the dangers and financial cost of cyber crime.

Also, their data confirms the concerning results of other analysis. Cyber criminal activities and related profit are in constant growth, the cost per cybercrime victim is up 50 percent, and the global price tag of consumer cyber crime is $113 billion annually. That’s a result of the concerns security analysts consider. It also effects the actual global economic scenario and the difficulties faced by enterprises.

This data was reported in the Norton Report, a document considered one of the world’s “largest consumer cyber crime studies, based on self-reported experiences of more than 13,000 adults across 24 countries, aimed at understanding how cybercrime affects consumers, and how the adoption and evolution of new technologies impacts consumers’ security.”

CYBER CRIME SCENARIO BY 2020

What will the cybercrime landscape look like in 2020? It’s difficult to predict the evolution of such a complex ecosystem. Technologies evolve at impressive speed, and with them, opportunities for cyber crime.

The European Cybercrime Centre (EC3) at Europol, and the International Cyber Security Protection Alliance (ICSPA) presented in a study titled Project 2020: Scenarios for the Future of Cybercrime – White Paper for Decision Makers, an overall predictable scenario of cyber crime in 2020. They evaluated a scenario under three different perspectives, from an individual, company and government point of view.

The document proposed worst-case scenarios, highlighting:

• Increased abuse for cloud infrastructures. Cyber criminals will increase the use of cloud technology to launch DDOS attacks, or host botnets. Underground market offerings will mature to support cyber gangs in the organization of sophisticated cyber attacks.
• It will be very difficult to distinguish between legal and illegal activity.
• Data protection is already a challenge in relation to the internet. The future reality of large scale Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) deployment, global sensor proliferation, aggregation of data and highly personalized, augmented services will require the legal frameworks for privacy and security to further adapt.
• Increased need for identity protection due the enlargement of individuals’ online experiences.
• Regarding privacy; as governments establish more privacy laws, the risk of incompatibility between countries increases, creating more roadblocks for responding to cyber crime.
• The heterogeneous legal framework will allow criminals to choose optimal target countries for illegal activities, and the best sources to engage attacks.
• A lack of unity in internet governance means a lack of unity in cyber security. Regardless of the precise number of governance authorities operating in 2020, there’ll need to be broad consensus on standards, to ensure interoperability of emerging internet mediated technologies, including augmented reality and “the Internet of Things.”
• A consolidation of user encryption management to avoid surveillance activities operated by governments could give cyber criminals an advantage.
• Threats will continue to blur the distinction between cyber and physical attacks (such as human implants, SCADA systems, etc.) Virtual reality technologies may lead to psychological attacks.
• Conventional thinking of protected and absolute control of intellectual property may lead to conditional control, as some governments may become dovish in responding to the increasingly prevalent (legal and illegal) access to IP. (However unlikely governments are to shift traditional thinking, they may enact policies that move with the punches of an increasing risk of IP theft, rather than put up a fight.)
• Data protection tools and laws will have to meet the increasing accessibility and proliferation of data.

The principal threats related to cyber crime activities could be grouped into the following categories:

• Intrusion for monetary or other benefits
• Interception for espionage
• Manipulation of information or networks
• Data destruction
• Misuse of processing power
• Counterfeit items
• Evasion tools and techniques

In the next year, almost all these cyber menaces will continue to concern authorities. The principal losses will be attributable to cyber espionage and sabotage activities. SMBs will be most impacted by cyber crime. That’s why it’s necessary that cyber strategies of governments include a series of mitigation countermeasures for principal cyber threats. Critical infrastructure and defense systems will represent privileged targets for cyber criminals and state sponsored hackers. The two categories of attackers will be difficult to distinguish in chaotic cyberspace.

“Evolved threats to critical infrastructure and human implants will increasingly blur the distinction between cyber and physical attack, resulting in offline destruction and physical injury.”

I predict That ..Attacks on Satellite in Space or infecting them and Worms infecting Devices used in Human Body and the new breed of Doctors fixing infection to devices fitted in Human Body called the "Cyber Doctors would evolve.