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Cybercrime Ranks as World’s Third-Largest Economy

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During the past 40 years, hackers have graduated from worm attacks in the 1980s to fully funded organizations tapping into some of the most lucrative industries in the world. Today, cybercrime is a significant threat to any company with a device attached to the internet and continues to cause substantial economic impact worldwide.

The modern-day cyberattack can trace its roots back to the 1988 Morris worm attack. Before the World Wide Web had made an impact, a small program launched from a computer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) propagated remarkably. It infected an estimated 6,000 of the approximately 60,000 computers connected to the internet at the time. Although it was difficult to calculate the exact damage caused by the Morris worm, estimates put it anywhere between US$100,000 and the millions.

Over the decades, cybercrime has become more sophisticated, with threats reflecting geopolitical tensions and hackers gaining notoriety. In 1999, a teenager hacked into the DoD and NASA and installed backdoor access to servers to download $1.7 million in software. Fast-forward to 2021, and the Colonial Pipeline in the U.S. was subject to a ransomware attack that forced the company to shut the pipeline down and pay $4.4 million via Bitcoin. In 2023, the CIOp gang exploited a zero-day vulnerability in the MOVEit file transfer software that affected 2,000 organizations and an estimated 62 million people.

Economic Scale of Cybercrime

The United States, with a gross domestic product (GDP) of $25.44 trillion at the end of 2022, is by far the world’s largest economy. China followed in second place, with a GDP of $17.96 trillion. However, cybercrime is growing at a remarkable rate. In 2021, it caused global damages that cost $6 trillion — approximately $2 trillion more than the GDP of Japan — the country with the world’s third-largest economy.

According to Evolve Security, cybercrime will grow by 15% annually over the next five years. Estimates from Statista’s cybersecurity outlook see the annual global cost of cybercrime rising to nearly $24 trillion by 2027, compared to $8.4 trillion in 2022.

In Germany, a study…

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6 internet habits that can compromise your cybersecurity – The European Sting – Critical News & Insights on European Politics, Economy, Foreign Affairs, Business & Technology

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This article is brought to you thanks to the collaboration of The European Sting with the World Economic Forum.

Author: Check Point

  • The internet has become an essential part of our lives, but it also comes with risks.
  • We need to be aware of the bad habits that we continue to maintain and that can affect our digital security.
  • These include using weak passwords, clicking on links in emails from unknown senders, and not keeping our software up to date.
  • By being more careful online, we can help to protect ourselves from cybercrime.

Nowadays we cannot live without the Internet, a basic resource among the new generations. Remember looking for information in an encyclopedia or going to a travel agency to buy a plane ticket or make a hotel reservation? It seems like ages ago, but the truth is that the network of networks has changed the way we do many tasks and has opened the doors to new possibilities that allow us, for example, to work from anywhere or make a bank transfer from our phone in just one click.

Unfortunately, this relentless evolution is also present in the multiple threats posed by cybercriminals. We have moved on from viruses distributed on floppy disks and Morris, the first worm to infect the Internet in 1988, to the emergence of Trojans, spyware and ransomware, the main protagonists of today’s cybercrime scene. According to the Security Report 2023 from Check Point® Software Technologies Ltd. (NASDAQ: CHKP), a leading global cyber security specialist provider, cyberattacks have increased by 38% in 2022 compared to the previous year, with an average of 1,168 attacks per week per organization and a situation that looks set to continue to worsen over the coming years.

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What is the World Economic Forum doing on cybersecurity?

The World Economic Forum Centre for Cybersecurity drives global action to address systemic cybersecurity challenges. It is an independent and impartial platform fostering collaboration on cybersecurity in the public and private sectors. Here are some examples of the impact delivered by the centre:

Cybersecurity training: Salesforce, Fortinet, and the Global Cyber Alliance, in collaboration…

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Malware economy is booming — Sophos – Back End News

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According to the latest report from cybersecurity firm Sophos, the commercialization of cybercrime drove an uptick in nearly all types of cyberattacks in 2022. The malware economy is booming which means no organization is immune to cyberthreats.

The Sophos 2023 Threat Report details the current cyberthreat landscape, including which ransomware groups to watch for and the tools, tactics, and procedures (TTPs) used by today’s adversaries to execute attacks. 

Scott Barlow, vice president of Managed Service Providers (MSP) and Cloud Alliances, Sophos Global , shares what organizations can expect in the 2023 cyberthreat landscape: 

Omdia Universe recognizes Sophos as XDR leader
Cybercriminals scam each other — Sophos

1. The commercialization of cybercrime isn’t slowing down

Although ransomware-as-a-service (RaaS) isn’t a new phenomenon, the widespread adoption of the “as-a-service” model has made nearly every component of cybercrime available for purchase. Many bad actors specialize in one element of an attack (like initial ransomware infection or data extraction) and market and sell their tools and services on forums on the dark web.

Cybercriminals also use these forums to identify and recruit talent, growing their “organizations” and adding new capabilities. The proliferation of sub-cybercrime markets makes the most sophisticated tools and tactics available to every cybercriminal.

2. Demand skyrockets for infostealers and stolen credentials

Infostealers and infostealing malware like keyloggers and remote access trojans (RATs) have always played a key role in the cyberthreat landscape. But the rise in demand for stolen credentials placed an even brighter spotlight on infostealing. Even though attackers historically relied on virtual private networks (VPNs) and remote desktop protocols (RDPs) to gain network access, stolen credentials provide more entry points and can be used to move laterally. For example, a bad actor can leverage stolen credentials to impersonate employees of an organization and bypass authentication measures.

The credential theft marketplace is also an effective way for attackers to get a foot in the door to the world…

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