Cybercrime refers to any illegal digital activity, such as stealing personal data or holding corporations digitally hostage. With over $6 trillion lost to cybercrime annually, learning prevention best practices is vital for protecting yourself and your livelihood in our increasingly connected world.
In this comprehensive guide, we’ll first define what cybercrime is and provide an overview of the cyber risk landscape. We’ll then do a deep dive into the 4 major categories plaguing individuals, businesses, and governments today – exploring real-world examples of attacks along with tips to secure yourself in each vector. Let‘s get started!
What is Cybercrime Exactly?
Cybercrime refers to any criminal activity involving a computer, network, or internet-enabled device. This includes small-scale individual scams to global organized criminal rings carrying out sophisticated technological attacks.
Cybercriminals have a vast array of methods for targeting victims such as:
- Malware – viruses, ransomware, spyware, botnets
- Hacking – phishing, social engineering, denial-of-service attacks
- Online fraud – spam, fake businesses, marketing scams
- Identity theft – compromised logins, credential stuffing
- Data breaches – network infiltration leading to information theft
And their motives range from financial theft to corporate espionage to public endangerment. But all cybercrime involves illegally accessing, using, altering, damaging or destroying a digital asset.
Worldwide cybercrime costs quadrupled from $1 trillion to over $4 trillion annually between 2015 to 2019 according to McAfee. And those numbers continue rising 30% year-over-year.
To instill confidence and safety across our digital landscape, we all must understand risks and best practices to secure our online presence.
Now let’s explore the 4 main cybercriminal targets and arm you with prevention insights to apply for protection from common attack types.
1. Individual Cybercrime
This category refers to cybercrimes targeting everyday citizens through means like electronic fraud, identity theft, and hacking personal devices. Criminals utilize clever psychological manipulation, impersonation and technical tricks to unlawfully take money or sensitive information from unsuspecting consumers.
Some prevalent methods include:
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Phishing – Mass emails pretending to be from trusted sources to harvest login credentials, credit card details or spread malware. 91% of cyber attacks start with phishing attempts.
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Vishing – Fraudulent phone calls from criminals posing as bankers or tech support to obtain private information.
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SMiShing – Phony text messages often claiming problems with accounts to get users to click dangerous links.
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Ransomware – Malicious software that locks computer systems until ransom funds are paid, now averaging $170,000 per event.
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Identity theft – Obtaining personal data to impersonate and make transactions in another’s name resulting in over $56 billion lost last year in America alone, per the DOJ.
“Individuals need to be as wary of their digital presence as their physical one when it comes to security threats,” says Cybercrime Expert Leslie Hughes. “Lock your online doors. Don‘t share sensitive info. And learn to spot fraud attempts.”
Here are key ways you can protect yourself:
🔑 Use strong unique passwords and multi-factor authentication across accounts
🔑 Install comprehensive antivirus/malware software and keep devices patched
🔑 Check sender addresses/links before clicking emails
🔑 Never provide sensitive data without independent verification
🔑 Backup files routinely
🔑 Monitor financial statements and credit reports
Staying vigilant in safeguarding personal data, skepticism before sharing information, and using layered security controls like MFA lets individuals mightily reduce chances of becoming cybercrime victims themselves.
2. Business Cybercrime
On a larger scale, cybercriminals aggressively target organizations and enterprise systems to steal data, money, or operational capacity. In fact 86% of data breaches involve a human element like phishing, misuse of access or social engineering per a recent Verizon study.
Leading tactics include:
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Phishing users – Customized mass emails or individual targeting often using psychological manipulation tailored to the recipient and organization. CEO fraud rose to $3 billion stolen through business email compromise scams last year.
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Insider access misuse – Employees misusing legitimate access unintentionally or as recruited “moles”.
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Supply chain infiltration – Attacking weakly secured vendor/partner networks to mine data or pivot to real targets.
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Web app / network exploitation – Technical vulnerabilities provide openings for systems infiltration.
“Ensuring security awareness across employees while hardening technological controls are equally vital for enterprise defense,” stresses Cybercrime Authority Carmen Veloso. “People are the new perimeter. Train them relentlessly.”
Robust prevention involves:
🔑Routine all-staff education to identify risks with integrated simulations to drive readiness
🔑Multi-layered cybersecurity defenses including DMZ segmentation, updated software, threat monitoring and management buy-in
🔑Conduct simulations to uncover technical and human vulnerabilities
🔑Vet third parties carefully regarding security posture
Implementing this blend of people and technology focused controls drastically shrinks enterprise cyber risk. Aviation giant AirBus estimates over 90% of their cyberattacks are automatically detected and mitigated saving billions in potential economic loss and reputation damage.
3. Cybercrime Targeting Property
As more physical items become “smart” and internet enabled, they also become targets for cyber exploitation. Criminals are increasingly infiltrating internet-of-things devices, online accounts or services for illegal usage, transactions or access of proprietary content.
Billions of IoT gadgets connected with weak security invite automated harnessing into malicious botnets.
Hijacking smart car controls or home device management apps enable dangerous real-world disruptions.
And digital content protection continues struggling against exponential growth of media piracy now costing global GDP $42 billion annually as reported by a recent OECD study.
Per cyber security scientist Dr. Misha Williams’ assessment:
“Any new innovation faces adversarial evolution. Whether pursuing profit, disruption or dysfunction bad actors probe emerging technologies for control opportunities. We must prioritize cyber hygiene and access management across industries.”
While no standard antidote for property cyber threats exists, common prevention principles apply:
🔑 Assess connected device security settings
🔑 Institute access controls like strong unique passwords
🔑 Enable account activity notifications
🔑 Report IoT or account anomalies promptly
🔑 Install comprehensive cyber protection suites
Though the cat and mouse game persists as our physical assets digitize, staying cautious, improving configurations, and monitoring for unusual behavior helps protect our individual properties and intellectual capital from unlawful exploitation.
4. Cybercrime Targeting Society
Finally, cybercrime at the highest level aims to undermine trust in governments, institutions, public safety and the information channels connecting citizens altogether.
State-sponsored hacking theft of national secrets continues accelerating as an insidious and destructive form of asymmetric warfare. Cyberterrorists probe critical infrastructure like power grids or hospitals to identify control points for potential disruption. Highly specialized groups unleash campaigns to intentionally sow public chaos, influence elections perceptions or impact legislative policy.
A chief FBI official described the overarching danger:
“The cyber attack surface threatening public and private sector entities is already miles wide. And the paradigm continues exponentially expanding as more governance and commerce flows across vulnerable digital networks.”
Some prominent societal cybercrime tactics include:
⚠️ State-sponsored hacking – stealing classified intelligence or trade secrets for geopolitical leverage
⚠️ Infrastructure infiltration – probing networks managing key utilities, supplies, and municipal systems
⚠️ Misinformation campaigns – using compromised media sites or personas to intentionally spread false narratives
⚠️Doxxing officials – illegally obtaining then publishing private data of public servants to intimidate or disrupt leadership
Battling crimes against society involves consistent coordinated efforts between policy makers and public/private sector technology leaders across areas like:
🔑 Forming government cybersecurity divisions
🔑 Enabling infrastructure network upgrades and redundancy
🔑 Creating public-private threat information sharing programs
🔑 Updating technology laws and cybercrime policies continually
When it comes to cybercrime targeting societies, continuous highly specialized efforts combining technology and policy help safeguard institutions and citizens overall.
Implementing Core Cyber Hygiene is Key
While cybercrime continues rising and attacking from new angles, the motivation almost always ties back to money, data or disruption. Implementing prevention best practices suited to each environment remains vital.
For personal protection, using unique complex passwords, installing antivirus tools, avoiding links/attachments and reporting anomalies early thwarts most scam attempts.
Businesses require comprehensive staff training to inoculate from common social engineering paired with layered technological defenses across infrastructure to repel sophisticated infiltrations.
And societies need persistent coordination across public and private spheres to upgrade key systems, monitor threat landscapes and share intelligence for the greatest operational resilience.
While cybercrime will assuredly persist and dangers have no single cure-all, improving security posture across these areas makes victims much harder targets benefitting individuals and institutions alike.
No environment is bullet-proof. But savvy understanding of risks alongside actionable precautions dramatically reduces susceptibility. Now you have an overview to thwart cybercriminals’ efforts across essential facets of modern life.
Stay safe out there and happy browsing!
