The war on cybercrime is still on and unfortunately in many aspects criminals are still winning. Experts from various Online Security Companies have warned us that cybercrimes might increase during 2015. Also, they gave out a list of what we should be watching for. It would seem that the most effective way to stop the online criminals, at least most of them, is to be prepared and know their intentions.
Cybercrimes increasing should come to us as no surprise. Companies as Sony, Microsoft and Apple have already been victims but they were certainly not the only ones.
Experts warn of several other forms of crime that could rapidly increase and would affect both public and private sectors, be that directly or indirectly. Such threats might be:
Targeted phishing
Phishing consists in creating a webpage or app so similar to the original that the user cannot easily identify the original one and the fake one. For example, a bank´s client might look up for the bank´s webpage online in order to do an online transaction. He types in his user code and password only he never noticed this page was a fake so his date is recorded by the criminal, giving him access to his account too.
The previous method depended on two things: the user had to find the criminal´s webpage somehow and then notice no difference, this two factors were not easy to meet simultaneously.
However, targeted phishing consists on finding out which webpages you frequently visit and creating a fake version of them (for example social networks, bank webpages, etc.). Targeted phishing is one of the cybercrimes expected to increase during 2015.
Data breach
This affects the public sector as well as the private sector.
Security companies warn that healthcare institutions will certainly be attractive targets as they hold millions of digital patient´s records. Personal information is very valuable for certain underground circles. Online ransoms can be directly related with the previous cybercrime. Experts advice this type of cybercrimes will increase during 2015.
It consists in blocking a device and asking for money to unblock it, hiding or encrypting files, stealing sensible data and threatening with leaking it, threaten the user with accusing them of serious crimes, etc., then asking for money if they want the attacks/threats to stop.
