Hello class,
The degree I'm going for is cybersecurity. After looking up the research guide for my degree I found some information. This will be a long discussion but I figured since it will be going towards further assignments I might as well write about as much as I can.
A cybersecurity firm is claiming, that a hacker network has stolen up to one billion dollars from banks all over the globe in what would be one of the greatest financial breaches ever documented in history. The analysis is scheduled to be given. The Russian information security company Kaspersky Lab claims that the cybercriminals have been active since at least the end of 2013 and have compromised the networks of more than one hundred banks located in thirty different countries.
According to the company, once Cyber criminals have successfully gained access to the computers of financial institutions through phishing schemes and other means, they then lurk for months to learn the systems of the financial institutions, taking screen shots and even video of employees using their computers to gather information. According to Kaspersky, once hackers become familiar with the way banks operate, they use this knowledge to steal money without arousing any suspicions. They do this by either programming ATMs to dispense money at certain times or setting up phony accounts and moving money into them. Both of these methods allow the hackers to remain undetected.The report is going to be presented at a conference that will be conducted on security on Monday in Cancun, which is going to be located in Mexico. The first outlet to report on it was none other than the New York Times (Chiu, et al 2022).
During a phone conversation with The Associated Press, Vicente Diaz, the lead security researcher for Kaspersky, indicated that the hackers appear to restrict their heist to roughly $10 million before moving on to another bank. Diaz made this statement when speaking with AP. According to Diaz, this is one of the reasons why the fraudulent activity was not noticed any earlier According to Diaz, these kinds of attacks are particularly exceptional in that they are not aimed at individual customers but rather against the financial institutions themselves, as opposed to the customers' account information. The information that he provided suggested that espionage was not the goal; rather, financial gain appeared to be the motivation (Alotaibi, 2022).
Due to the specific nature of the situation, they do not have any interest in receiving information. He said that all they cared about was the money, and that was his assessment of them. They are versatile as well as somewhat aggressive, and in order to achieve whatever it is that they want to do, they will make use of any tool that they believe will be of assistance to them in this endeavor.
According to Kaspersky, the bulk of the affected individuals may be found in the following countries: Russia, the United States of America, Germany, China, and Ukraine. On the other hand, it's possible that the attackers are expanding their activities across other continents, including Asia, Africa, the Middle East, and Europe. In one particular case, ATM fraud resulted in a loss of $7.3 million for a bank. In a separate incident, the cybercriminals compromised the online banking infrastructure of a financial institution, which resulted in a loss of ten million dollars for the company (Chiu, et al 2022).
Kaspersky did not name the financial institutions that were attacked, and the company is continuing to collaborate with various law enforcement authorities in order to investigate the attacks, which the company claims are ongoing. Kaspersky also did not name the individuals who were responsible for the attacks (Alotaibi, 2022).The Financial Services Information Sharing and Analysis Center, a nonprofit organization that warns banks about potential hacker activities, said in a statement that its members were given a briefing on the report during the month of January. The statement was released in conjunction with the center's publication of the report (Alotaibi, 2022).The organization issued a statement in which it said, "We cannot comment on individual initiatives our members have made; however, on the whole, we feel that our members are taking adequate actions to avoid and identify these types of assaults and minimize any implications for their consumers (Chiu, et al 2022).
As a result of the revelation that Russian financial institutions were the primary targets of these cyberattacks, it is probable that hackers who speak Russian have considerably adjusted their method of targeting their attacks (Alotaibi, 2022).The White House is putting a greater emphasis on the significance of information technology security in the wake of a number of data breaches that occurred at corporations ranging from mass retailers like Target and Home Depot to entertainment studios like Sony Pictures Entertainment and health insurer Anthem. Target and Home Depot were among the companies that suffered these breaches (Chiu, et al 2022).The administration wants Congress to replace the current patchwork of state regulations with a nationwide standard that would give companies 30 days to notify customers if the security of their personally identifiable information had been breached. Currently, the state rules are a hodgepodge of different rules from different states (Alotaibi, 2022).
References:Alotaibi, A. (2022). Ransomware Attacks as a Cybercrime in the United States: An Exploratory Study (Doctoral dissertation, Indiana State University).Chiu, V., & Yahya, M. A. (2022). Meme Stock Vigilantism: A Quasi-Property Rights Approach. Forthcoming Ohio State Business Law Journal, 17(1).
