Cybercrime: buzz or harsh reality?

What you really need to know about the future of cybercrime

Cybercrime blog

Every day we see reports popping up in the media about companies being hacked or major platforms being shut down. Professional jargon is sprinkled around and little attention is paid to in-depth information. What goes wrong so often these days? How can we avoid it?

For a school assignment, Lora Haeck, daughter of Kristof Haeck (Managing Partner Evolane), took her father to task about the prevailing issues surrounding cybercrime. Below you can read the result!

Phishing, ransomware, hacking and DDoS attacks: we are overloaded with terms, but what do they actually stand for?

Just as there are different types of “ordinary” crime, you can also distinguish different forms of cybercrime. The best-known form today is undoubtedly phishing. With phishing, criminals try to lure you to a fake website via an e-mail so that they can steal your data or money through that website.

Hacking is another well-known phenomenon. This is where online criminals shut down or abuse websites or computer networks. They can do this to steal data for example, but just as easily to carry out DDoS attacks, which brings us to the next type of cybercrime.

DDoS stands for distributed denial-of-service. It is a malicious attempt to disrupt traffic to a server, online service or network. DDoS attacks are carried out by overwhelming an organization’s IT infrastructure or Web site with an abundance of Internet traffic.

Ransomware is also a form of hacking, and literally means “hostage software”. As that translation suggests, hackers will block a computer, or the data on it, and then ask the user for a ransom to free the computer.

Terrifying! Can you protect yourself from this as an organization or individual?

Fortunately, you can! To protect yourself as an individual, there are three things you must consider. First, you must install the latest antivirus system on your computer. Second, you should also stay alert while surfing, and monitor the reliability of the websites you visit. Finally, always install the latest updates to your software and operating systems (Mac or Windows).

Companies can also follow these steps, but it is best to shift up a gear, as there is often a lot of money, company information or personal data at stake. To protect the organization, employees and application visitors, you need tools like a Web Application Firewall or a ZeroTrust solution.

 

“In addition to raising awareness, innovative and technological means will also be needed to guard against cybercrime.”

Firewall? Zero Trust? In English please!

These solutions will detect possible threats and attempts made by hackers. You can compare it to airport security. Just as your luggage has to go through the scanner for air travel, a Web Application Firewall will check the contents of a data packet for threats or vulnerabilities.

Now that remote working has become part of professional life and employees can work from anywhere, companies are unknowingly exposing themselves to unwanted intrusions through their employees’ devices, possibly unsecured Web sites and network connections. With Zero Trust, you can prevent this from happening.

What are the consequences for individuals and businesses that do not protect themselves?

For individuals, the greatest danger is that money can be extorted from them. This often involves large sums of money, which you regularly do not get back.

Companies can also lose money, but the damage is even greater. Consider, for example, the potential damage to a company’s image when hackers place content on their website, take down their website or steal sensitive user data.

Technology is evolving at lightning speed. What are the latest trends when it comes to hacking?

Deep fake technology is becoming more common. Deep fake allows you to create videos, photos, voice messages and texts that appear to be real but are not. Such videos, etc. are often difficult to spot, trapping many people. This makes it increasingly difficult to guard against identity theft, which encourages fraud and crime.

In addition to new trends, existing hacking techniques will also continue to evolve. Hacking is truly a cat-and-mouse game, and hackers are becoming more intelligent and creative. So security companies must constantly innovate to stay ahead of hackers.

Will new technologies also emerge to make it easier for hackers?

Unfortunately, it does. AI (artificial intelligence) is emerging more and more. This involves using intelligent algorithms to optimize current hacking techniques. So no more human interference is needed to commit crimes!

Despite the protection mechanisms in place, is it possible to ever completely stop these types of hackers?

Just as “real” crime will probably always exist, cybercrime will too. Stopping it completely is virtually impossible, but that doesn’t mean we can’t fight it or protect ourselves.

To reduce the number of victims, we will have to raise awareness among “ordinary” people and youth. This both for themselves and for their current and future employers.

In addition to raising awareness, innovative and technological means will be needed to arm ourselves against cybercrime.

Cybercrime

Read our other blogs here

Phishing

Phishing

Brand protectorStrengthen your brand's security against phishing attacksIn the digital age we live in, cybercriminals pose a constant threat. These threats have evolved over the years and have become more comprehensive, including phishing, the creation of fake...

read more
A Day In The Life Of …

A Day In The Life Of …

our Perfomance Engineer DylanMeet Dylan! He started at Evolane five years ago as a newbie, as part of an internship… Today, Dylan is a permanent member of the Performance Monitoring Team. And what a member! As a Dynatrace performance engineer, he plays a critical role...

read more
Breaking the Ransomware Kill Chain

Breaking the Ransomware Kill Chain

During Cybersec Europe 2023The threat of ransomware attacks is at an unprecedented peak. By 2022, half of all organisations will experience an attack of this category. This came as a total surprise to half of them, because they were convinced that they were...

read more