[caption id="attachment_1156" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Hackerville, Romania"]
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Following is an excerpt from a fascinating but very scary story that affects s all of us personally and in business every day of our lives:
Three hours outside Bucharest, Romanian National Road 7 begins a gentle ascent into the foothills of the Transylvanian Alps. Meadowlands give way to crumbling houses with chickens in the front yard, laundry flapping on clotheslines. But you know youve arrived in the (infamous for cybercrime) town of Râmnicu Vâlcea when you see the Mercedes-Benz dealership.
Its in the middle of a grassy field, shiny sedans behind gleaming glass walls. Right next door is another luxury car dealership selling a variety of other high-end European rides. Its as if the sheer magic of wealth has shimmered the glass-and-steel buildings into being.
In fact, expensive cars choke the streets of Râmnicu Vâlceas bustling city centertop-of-the-line BMWs, Audis, and Mercedes driven by twenty and thirty-something men sporting gold chains and fidgeting at red lights. I ask my cab driver if these men all have high-paying jobs, and he laughs. Then he holds up his hands, palms down, and wiggles his fingers as if typing on a keyboard. They steal money on the Internet, he says (translation = they are cybercriminals).
Among law enforcement officials around the world, the city of 120,000 has a nickname: Hackerville. Its something of a misnomer; the town is indeed full of online crooks, but only a small percentage of them are actual hackers. Most specialize in ecommerce scams and malware attacks on businesses. According to authorities, these schemes have brought tens of millions of dollars into the area over the past decade, fueling the development of new apartment buildings, nightclubs, and shopping centers. Râmnicu Vâlcea is a town whose business is cybercrime, and business is booming.
Yes, there is an entire industry in existence that is dedicated to flourishing on the backs of decent people, businesses and organizations through deception and cyberheists. You can do something to protect yourself and your organization about the growing problem of cybercrime. The most basic and essential step any organization can take to increase online security is implementing a program of Internet Security Awareness Training.
For more information on this type of training visit www.knowbe4.com and try our free online phishing security test to see how phish-prone your employees areits a great way to assess the security savvy of your employees.
To read the full story of organized cybercrime in Romania, click here: Hackerville
Stu Sjouwerman
KnowBe4
[/caption]Following is an excerpt from a fascinating but very scary story that affects s all of us personally and in business every day of our lives:
Three hours outside Bucharest, Romanian National Road 7 begins a gentle ascent into the foothills of the Transylvanian Alps. Meadowlands give way to crumbling houses with chickens in the front yard, laundry flapping on clotheslines. But you know youve arrived in the (infamous for cybercrime) town of Râmnicu Vâlcea when you see the Mercedes-Benz dealership.
Its in the middle of a grassy field, shiny sedans behind gleaming glass walls. Right next door is another luxury car dealership selling a variety of other high-end European rides. Its as if the sheer magic of wealth has shimmered the glass-and-steel buildings into being.
In fact, expensive cars choke the streets of Râmnicu Vâlceas bustling city centertop-of-the-line BMWs, Audis, and Mercedes driven by twenty and thirty-something men sporting gold chains and fidgeting at red lights. I ask my cab driver if these men all have high-paying jobs, and he laughs. Then he holds up his hands, palms down, and wiggles his fingers as if typing on a keyboard. They steal money on the Internet, he says (translation = they are cybercriminals).
Among law enforcement officials around the world, the city of 120,000 has a nickname: Hackerville. Its something of a misnomer; the town is indeed full of online crooks, but only a small percentage of them are actual hackers. Most specialize in ecommerce scams and malware attacks on businesses. According to authorities, these schemes have brought tens of millions of dollars into the area over the past decade, fueling the development of new apartment buildings, nightclubs, and shopping centers. Râmnicu Vâlcea is a town whose business is cybercrime, and business is booming.
Yes, there is an entire industry in existence that is dedicated to flourishing on the backs of decent people, businesses and organizations through deception and cyberheists. You can do something to protect yourself and your organization about the growing problem of cybercrime. The most basic and essential step any organization can take to increase online security is implementing a program of Internet Security Awareness Training.
For more information on this type of training visit www.knowbe4.com and try our free online phishing security test to see how phish-prone your employees areits a great way to assess the security savvy of your employees.
To read the full story of organized cybercrime in Romania, click here: Hackerville
Stu Sjouwerman
KnowBe4
