Are Asia and Latin America becoming the new places to commit cybercrime?
Both Asia and Latin America may well become new cybercrime hotbeds after a sharp rise in digital extortion within the regions.
Cyber extortion gangs are moving their attention away from their usual target areas of North American and Europe and focusing on new territories, and victims, to commit their crimes.
But what exactly is cyber extortion and why is it such a threat?
Cyber extortion is a type of cyber crime where a company or organisation is targeted and held to ransom. Cyber criminals will find system weakness and threaten to steal or leak confidential information unless they are paid.
The most common types of cyber extortion are ransomware and DDos attacks.
- Ransomware is a malicious software that is usually sent via phishing emails or visiting a website infected with the malware. It will encrypt files and prevent them from being accessed. The criminal will then decrypt them for a fee.
- DDos attacks are synchronised attacks that flood a server with traffic. It is aimed at bringing down an organisation or companies network, potentially causing huge financial losses.
These types of crimes are a major global problem – and are only growing.
Last year, cyber extortion was committed in 96 different countries around the world, according to a report by digital security company, Orange Cyber Defense.
The report was an analysis of over 2100 companies around the world that were public victims of cyber extortion in 2022. It found extortion gangs have started moving away from their usual countries of choice. It is thought to be caused by the invasion of Ukraine and an increase in cybersecurity in western regions.
South East Asia saw the biggest increase in victims of 42%, with Latin American coming in second with 32% over the same year. This is in contrast to the major decrease of 28% in victims in Canada and a 21% drop in the US. The Oceania region had a slightly smaller decrease of 11%. While Europe saw a decrease of just 2%.
However the overall majority of cyber extortion victims were still in NATO countries with 74% of cyber extortion taking place there. It was also found that attacks steadily decreased in these countries from the start of the Ukraine war and as it progressed. This shows that criminals are looking for new places to target that may not have the same security in place and are therefore much easier targets.
Although the Ukraine war may have put an overall brake on cyber extortion as total crimes committed of this nature dropped by 8%. Cyber criminals are looking to be making a comeback, with a new surge in attacks at the start of 2023.
Cybersecurity is a very serious issue in this digital age and one that should not be ignored. The consequences for victims of cybercrime can be catastrophic and with more advances in tech, it is only looking to get worse. But there are many cyber security events you can attend to keep you in the know. Staying up to date with the latest threats will help safeguard you from the dangers and keep your information safe.
With a solid foundation in technology, backed by a BIT degree, Lucas Noah has carved a niche for himself in the world of content creation and digital storytelling. Currently lending his expertise to Creative Outrank LLC and Oceana Express LLC, Lucas has become a... Read more