Today's Quote

Don't listen to the person who has the answers;
listen to the person who has the questions.
Albert Einstein

Does the common stereotype for “organized crime” hold up for organizations of hackers?

via Michigan State University

Article Highlights

Research from Michigan State University is one of the first to identify common attributes of cybercrime networks, revealing how these groups function and work together to cause an estimated $445-600 billion of harm globally per year
“It’s not the ‘Tony Soprano mob boss type’ who's ordering cybercrime against financial institutions,” said Thomas Holt, MSU professor of criminal justice and co-author of the study. “Certainly, there are different nation states and groups engaging in cybercrime, but the ones causing the most damage are loose groups of individuals who come together to do one thing, do it really well – and even for a period of time – then disappear.”
In cases like New York City’s “Five Families,” organized crime networks have historic validity, and are documented and traceable. In the online space, however, it’s a very difficult trail to follow, Holt said
“We found that these cybercriminals work in organizations, but those organizations differ depending on the offense,” Holt said. “They may have relationships with each other, but they’re not multi-year, multi-generation, sophisticated groups that you associate with other organized crime networks.”
Holt explained that organized cybercrime networks are made up of hackers coming together because of functional skills that allow them to collaborate to commit the specific crime. So, if someone has specific expertise in password encryption and another can code in a specific programming language, they work together because they can be more effective – and cause greater disruption – together than alone
“Many of these criminals connected online, at least initially, in order to communicate to find one another,” Holt said. “In some of the bigger cases that we had, there's a core group of actors who know one another really well, who then develop an ancillary network of people who they can use for money muling or for converting the information that they obtained into actual cash.”
Holt and lead author E. R. Leukfeldt, researcher at the Netherlands Institute for the Study of Crime and Law Enforcement, reviewed 18 cases from the Netherlands in which individuals were prosecuted for cases related to phishing. Data came directly from police files and was gathered through wire and IP taps, undercover policing, observation and house searches
Beyond accessing credit cards and banking information, Holt and Leukfeldt found that cybercriminals also worked together to create fake documents so they could obtain money from banks under fraudulent identities
Looking ahead as law enforcement around the world takes steps to crack down on these hackers, Holt hopes his findings will help guide them in the right direction
“As things move to the dark web and use cryptocurrencies and other avenues for payment, hacker behaviors change and become harder to fully identify, it's going to become harder to understand some of these relational networks,” Holt said. “We hope to see better relationships between law enforcement and academia, better information sharing, and sourcing so we can better understand actor behaviors.”

The Complete Story: ORGANIZED CYBERCRIME – NOT YOUR AVERAGE MAFIA

Michigan State University

Go deeper with Bing News on:

Organized cybercrime

GajShield Infotech Organises Channel Partner Meet in Nagpur
GajShield Infotech has recently organized its channel partner meet. Initiated in partnership with its Regional distributor Mass Infonet, (Mumbai and ROM), the one-day event was organized on 11th March ...
Healthcare Cyber Security Market Challenges 2023 Growth, Industry Demand, Top Players Strategy, Size, Share and Forecast Report till 2031
The global healthcare cyber security market size was US$ 14.5 billion in 2021. The global healthcare cyber security market is forecast to grow to US$ 51.2 billion by 2030 by registering a compound ...
Fixing American Cybersecurity is Harder than it Looks
Cipher Brief Expert and former NSA General Counsel Glenn Gerstell reviews the new book FIxing American Cybersecurity ...
Cyber Defense Center Market Facts and Figures by 2029
Get a Sample PDF of the Report - The global Cyber Defense Center market size was valued at USD million in 2022 and is forecast to a readjusted size of USD million by 2029 with a CAGR during review ...
Hassan, Kuster on hand for launch of expanded forensic lab to fight cybercrime targeting children
U.S. Representative Annie Kuster (D-NH-02) and dignitaries from the New Hampshire law enforcement community gathered at the Norris Cotton Federal Building to christen the newly expanded Homeland ...

Go deeper with Google Headlines on:

Organized cybercrime

[google_news title=”” keyword=”organized cybercrime” num_posts=”5″ blurb_length=”0″ show_thumb=”left”]

Go deeper with Bing News on:

Cybercrime

Tackling the growing and ever more sophisticated cybercrime threats
There is a growing awareness of cybersecurity because it affects absolutely everybody, from avoiding those fake An Post messages to ignoring dubious links on TikTok. "Five years ago, smaller ...
The safe conundrum: How blockchain can help fight cybercrime
It is believed that blockchain is expected to play a crucial role in combat. Case in point, the latest protocols such as the Hedera Hashgraph may help in distributed denial of service attacks.
Modesto ransomware attack claimed by Snatch cybercrime operation
The Snatch ransomware operation has admitted responsibility for a ransomware attack against the City of Modesto, California ,last month, but did not provide details regarding the extent of its data ...
North Korean APT43 Group Uses Cybercrime to Fund Espionage Operations
APT43, a moderately-sophisticated cyber operator that supports North Korea's regime, engages in financially-motivated cybercrime to fund its operation ...
Cybercrime and Security Market Analysis by Global Report Research, 2028
Insights] “Cybercrime and Security Market” Size 2023 Key players Profiled in the Report are [, Lockheed Martin, ...

Go deeper with Google Headlines on:

Cybercrime

[google_news title=”” keyword=”cybercrime” num_posts=”5″ blurb_length=”0″ show_thumb=”left”]

Tags: cybercrime hackers michigan state university organized cybercrime

Related Articles

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Copyright 2023. Created by Innovation Toronto

Desktop Version Mobile Version