Cyber fraud

At global level ICT advancement has immensely contributed to economic development including finance and banking.

However, it is the same ICT systems used by the banks which are negatively utilized by perpetrators of fraud. The increased use of ICT such as computers, mobile phones, internet and other associated technologies are the routes which gave rise to lot of constructive work as well as destructive work.

Cyber fraud can be defined as any embezzlement or defalcation accomplished by tampering with computer programs resulting in losses sustained by the organization, in which computer was sustained by the organization, in which computer was manipulated. Specifically, cyber fraud involves the use of internet to perpetuate fraud.

Falling victim to a cyber fraud attack can result in major financial losses, while data breaches can severely damage customers’ trust in a company. Fraudsters can easily monetise stolen information by selling it on online, and the impact of this on businesses’ reputations can be severe.
Cyber fraud

Spear phishing

The attacks called ‘spear phishing’ or ‘whaling’ use trickery and trust to convince users to click a link, which installs malicious code on their computer.  The attack used to steal the personal information of a specific target such as a senior government executive of a military officer.

After installing the malicious code, the attacker is able to collect valuable personal and professional data from the victim and at times allows them complete control of the affected computer.

This type of phishing has appeared as the damage caused by preexisting phishing attacks increased. The defining characteristic of spear phishing is that the attack is targeted on specific purpose.

Spear phishing poses a serious threat to corporations owing to the possibility of access to trade secrets and other classified information. Phisers constantly check the returns on various emails and modify their attacks, making it hard to create a set of rules that can be automatically applied to spot all spear phishing emails.

What all spear phishing attacks have in common is that they use some form of information about the potential victim in order to maximize the chances that he or she finds the ruse believable.

If a phisher collects personal information about a potential victim and tailors the attack to this information, then this constitutes a spear phishing attack.
Spear phishing

Cyber Crime

Online terrorism, computer crimes and cyber attacks are no longer abstract possibilities. They are real major threats requiring real, major safeguards.

The awareness of security has since September 11 events increased in many ways - increased concerned over physical sites, increased concerns of securing networked infrastructure and changes in corporate attitude from being confident about their organization’s security and delaying spending on security, to seeing IT security as an essential capital investment.

Surveys indicate an increase in external, as well as internal, attacks on information systems. The question is not if an organization’s system and business critical assets will be compromised, but when. We have already seemed numerous examples of viruses and worms.

Systems, data and personal information will come under attack. Every day, companies like EDS are discovering seven to ten vulnerabilities in systems around the world. Tomorrow it will be web defacements, semantic attacks, domain name server (DNS) attacks, distributed denial service (DDoS) attacks, routing systems and infrastructure attacks.

These are hidden weak spots attackers and cyber criminals use to get our information assents. What was secure yesterday simply does not hold up today. In addition to direct financial loss, the loss of reputation and trust cause real long term damage.

Companies have been facing real network related challenges in the regular course of business. Now, we add terrorist attacks to that list and government and private business have begin to think about vulnerability of the computer systems and networks that support critical infrastructures.

Society’ vital services and critical infrastructure: communications, finance, transportation, and utilities such as electricity, oil, gas and water rely on computer and computer networked. If these networked are damaged the nation will be disrupt.

Governments as well as business that own and operate banks, utility infrastructure, transportation systems, telecommunications networks and other critical systems, must be prepared for the possibility of a destructive attack in cyberspace. The cyber threat is out there, either directly or as collateral damage in other kinds of attacks.
Cyber Crime

Cyber terrorism

Online terrorism, computer crimes and cyber attacks are no longer abstract possibilities. They are real major threats requiring real, major safeguards.

The awareness of security has since September 11 events increased in many ways - increased concerned over physical sites, increased concerns of securing networked infrastructure and changes in corporate attitude from being confident about their organization’s security and delaying spending on security, to seeing IT security as an essential capital investment.

Surveys indicate an increase in external, as well as internal, attacks on information systems. The question is not if an organization’s system and business critical assets will be compromised, but when. We have already seemed numerous examples of viruses and worms.

Systems, data and personal information will come under attack. Every day, companies like EDS are discovering seven to ten vulnerabilities in systems around the world.

Tomorrow it will be web defacements, semantic attacks, domain name server (DNS) attacks, distributed denial service (DDoS) attacks, routing systems and infrastructure attacks. These are hidden weak spots attackers and cyber criminals use to get our information assents. What was secure yesterday simply does not hold up today.

In addition to direct financial loss, the loss of reputation and trust cause real long term damage.

Companies have been facing real network related challenges in the regular course of business. Now, we add terrorist attacks to that list and government and private business have begin to think about vulnerability of the computer systems and networks that support critical infrastructures.

Society’ vital services and critical infrastructure: communications, finance, transportation, and utilities such as electricity, oil, gas and water rely on computer and computer networked.

If these networked are damaged the nation will be disrupt. Governments as well as business that own and operate banks, utility infrastructure, transportation systems, telecommunications networks and other critical systems, must be prepared for the possibility of a destructive attack in cyberspace.

The cyber threat is out there, either directly or as collateral damage in other kinds of attacks.
Cyber terrorism