Why is Cyber Crime Starts Growing? Detailed Report

In the era of modern technologies when almost all the data about us is available online, the level of cyber crime is constantly growing. Nowadays, we can clearly see the steady stream of technological advancements that impede cybersecurity. Using special tools a criminals can steal secret information from IT systems and use it for a cyber threat.

Cybercrime evolves every day and attackers become more and more inventive. Corporations all over the world spend a lot of money on professional organisations that provide cyber security but it rather helps find out the committed cybercrime than prevent it.

In fact, the likely annual cost to the global economy from cybercrime is more than $400 billion.

According to the Cybersecurity Ventures’ statistics 2017, cybercrime damages will amount to a staggering $6 trillion annually starting in 2021. Some people still underestimate the risks that come with cybercrime. 

There are many technologically advanced organisations that, however, cannot solve some cases of such a crime.

Even a big corporation with a good level of defence can fall victim to a cyber-criminal. For instance, in India, the personal data of about 1.5 billion people was exposed in a large-scale data breach of the country’s ID database in March 2018.

Why the level of cybercrime is rising

So, let’s discuss what are the main reasons for cyber crimes meteoric growth. In fact, the more processes a company conducts in cyberspace, the higher the risk of facing cybercrime. For example, if a business creates an app to provide services to users, hackers can attack it. Also, they use a spear phishing attack, redirecting emails to the false URL. There are so many ways of doing a cybercrime today that it is almost impossible to provide cyber security and be fully protected from the attacks.

Another reason for increasing cyber crime is profitability. The data stolen from an IT system can be worth billions of dollars.  Over 53% of the cyber-attacks faced by companies result in an average damage of more than $500,000. The chance to get so much money attracts both professional cyber criminals and those whose career in cyber crime just begins. 

With the cybercrime increase, data breaches are becoming more regular. About ten years ago, when the internet development had just started and not many people cared about cyber security, cyber crime affected mostly government organisations and banks.

This type of crime is getting more global and these days companies of all sizes have some information that is of potential interest to a cyber criminal. Even a pair of family photos can be used as a threat to the victim of the crime. In the end, people are forced to pay a lot of money in order to keep their personal data a secret. 

The growing number of cyber threats on the Internet is due to many technology innovations that are getting popular pretty fast. People install new applications on their phones and agree with all the terms and conditions about security that they are offered.

Nobody reads what exactly conditions they accept. In this way, we give access to all the personal information on the device. Moreover, you can even install a ransomware on your PC and not know about it. Criminals became incredibly creative and their attacks of cyber security are getting more often.

They always consider the human factor which lets them make a person click on a link embedded in a plausible-looking message. According to Symantec’s ISTR 2019 report, the use of malicious PowerShell scripts has grown by 1,000% in 2018. 

There are plenty of successful phishing attacks that can serve as models for a variety of similar scams. Emails and instant messages are some of the easiest ways to break the security of a person, steal passwords, and other important data. 

Scams keep evolving

Cyber security has never been simple. Although many cyber criminals prefer using older schemes, there are those who are looking for new ways for a cyber attack.

They are posing as official government agencies and warning that there is a virus on your system and you must install some program in order to get rid of it.

There are lots of cyber criminals who share their skills and knowledge with others. Most of them sell malware kits which brings them a significant financial gain. Some methods of doing cyber crime can be found free on the internet.   

These people can begin a cyber attack with something unnoticeable. For example, they can get access to a social network account of a victim. This may be pretty easy for an advanced cyber.

The point is that often we use the same password for the accounts on different websites. So, the password of a Facebook profile that belongs to a person that works for the government can be dangerous for national security. 

Hard to catch

Why is network security so hard to provide even for advanced organisations? What is the reason for the increase in cyber crime? Law enforcement is handicapped by the fact that such criminals can work from anywhere. The only thing they need is the internet. Some countries have limited digital crime laws, which means that the legal basis that would work in other countries cannot be used there.

This is complicated to find out who committed the crime as these people are usually very good at hiding their own data. 

So, our private information would be much safer if we did not click on the links received from unknown people and organisations.

The number of cyber threats will continue to grow since it has a potent blend of innovation drivers.

It is difficult to undertake completely comprehensive risk assessments about participation in cyberspace. When it comes to corporate security, the best thing that can be done is ensuring the sustainability and success of an organisation even if cyber crime happens.