Report: The economy of criminal hackers and how businesses can protect themselves

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This is a good down to earth article that brings up some good info on the why and the who of the cyber criminals. The article is also great info for home users.

 

Excerpt:

 

"On Tuesday, Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) released a new report titled "The Business of Hacking," which examined the underground economy surrounding cybercrime and criminal hackers, and explained how businesses can protect themselves.

 

Chandra Rangan, vice president of global marketing for HPE security products, said that many of the conversations they have with security professionals in IT organizations can quickly become very technical. As such, some business leaders often relegate security as something to be spoken to exclusively by security professionals.

 

But, by explaining how the cybercrime underworld economy works, Rangan hopes it will help business leaders "understand that criminal hacking is a business, and it operates like a business. By doing that, it gives business leaders a much better appreciation of what's a happening."

 

According to the report, cybercrime can take many forms. Criminals can be acting in the interest of organized crime, corporate espionage, hacktivism, cyber warfare or terrorism, or just people who want to make some money. The report itself focused on the criminal exploits that could be monetized.

 

In terms of the way criminals make money through cybercrime, the report identified 10 ways criminals use hacking for financial gain.

1.Ad fraud
2.Credit card fraud
3.Payment system fraud/Bitcoin mining
4.Bank fraud
5.Medical records fraud
6.Identity theft
7.Credential harvesting
8.Bug bounty
9.Extortion
10.IP theft

 

Ad fraud, or setting up adds to bolster fake website traffic, are one of the easiest forms of cybercrime and have the highest payout potential. Extortion and IP theft, while almost as profitable, are far more difficult to pull off."

 

There is a lot more in the article here: http://www.techrepublic.com/article/report-the-economy-of-criminal-hackers-and-how-businesses-can-protect-themselves/?ftag=TRE684d531&bhid=19724681974700635514865380622813