In a recent story for PC World, veteran security writer (and former About.com security guru) Tony Bradley's headline says it all "Cybercrime: A Recession-Proof Growth Industry." In that story, he makes many of the same points that we do in our forthcoming book Cyberheist: The biggest financial threat facing American businesses since the meltdown of 2008. Here's a sampling of what will seem like high points to those in the trade, but will seem like low points (or maybe pain points?) for the rest of us:
Bradley's closing points also echo our own outlook on cybercrime: it might look like a great gig, but the bill will always come due, and law enforcement will eventually catch up with the perpetrators. As another crime fighter named McGruff once said "Don't do the crime, if you can't do the time!" Nevertheless, cybercrime is here to stay!
Stu Sjouwerman
KnowBe4
- Cybercrime continues to enjoy double-digit growth year over year.
- Bars to entry into this field remain low, overhead is minimal to nonexistent, and compensation can be extremely high.
- Cybercime serves as a "finely tuned machine of commerce."
- While some phishing attacks and spam still manifest bad grammar, poor spelling, and horrible English, "many attacks today are polished and professional."
- Bradley quotes a McAfee Labs representative as saying "...we've watched these cybercriminals and their tactics grow in sophistication" since the days of early primitive worms ('I Love You') in 2000.
- Bradley links to a "retrospective report from McAfee" entitled A Good Decade for Cybercrime that examines "malware exploits and cyber scams that illustrate the evolution of cybercrime" and its impact on computer security
- Key points from McAfee's report include a rise in the total online Internet population to nearly two billion (we actually believe it's north of 2.1 billion) all of whom are potential victims of cybercrime, and the notion that an increasingly connected population on Facebook, Twitter, and other social networks present cybercriminals with more target-rich environments, and make it easier to separate those victims from their money
Bradley's closing points also echo our own outlook on cybercrime: it might look like a great gig, but the bill will always come due, and law enforcement will eventually catch up with the perpetrators. As another crime fighter named McGruff once said "Don't do the crime, if you can't do the time!" Nevertheless, cybercrime is here to stay!
Stu Sjouwerman
KnowBe4
