The Latest Methods to Stop Cybercrime
The prevalence of cybercrime is steadily increasing, marked by a surge in complexity. This trend has been particularly pronounced following the widespread lockdowns of 2020, during which a substantial portion of the population developed heightened dependence on and familiarity with online services.
Many of these crimes are conducted through a range of cybersecurity attack strategies, such as phishing, man-in-the-middle (MitM), CEO fraud, hacking, DDoS, SQL injections, and malware attacks.
Over time, it was mainly a decentralized group of individuals who used to commit these crimes.
But, as we speak of the 21st century, cybercrime has now become a thriving industry, with criminal organizations, hacktivists, organized hacker syndicates, and nation-state actors, all being its participants.
Implementing the Latest Methods to Stop Cybercrime
The landscape of cyber threats is evolving at an unprecedented pace, with data breaches becoming more prevalent than ever before. Safeguarding against cybercrime is an immense endeavor, requiring the elimination of cybersecurity vulnerabilities and the development of proactive strategies to thwart cyberattacks from the outset.
However, this undertaking is fraught with challenges. Cybercriminals continually adapt their tactics, the number of malicious actors in the digital realm is on the rise, and technology advances at a breakneck speed, making it a constant struggle for cybersecurity experts and organizations to outpace these malevolent forces.
In the face of this dynamic threat landscape, there is no one-size-fits-all solution for eradicating cybercrime. Instead, it hinges on the artful assembly of cutting-edge technology, industry best practices, and robust protocols to create a tailored cybersecurity shield that suits the unique needs of your organization.
In the following discussion, we will delve into the realm of cybersecurity, exploring the most effective practices to fortify your defenses against the ever-growing specter of cybercrime.
1. Detect Fraud Rings
Fraud rings can be compared with traditional organized criminal gangs. These rings are more sophisticated than opportunistic fraudsters, with more money, resources, and technology at their disposal.
While some fraud rings specialize in a single sort of attack, the majority of fraud rings blur the lines between a variety of fraudulent practices. Their practices can sometimes even merge cybercrime and general criminality.
Many fraud rings might even collaborate with experts across a variety of sectors, to execute frauds such as social engineering, financial fraud, and the development of synthetic ID.
It's also worth noting that defining what constitutes a fraud ring can be a challenging task. There is no mandatory number of team members required to establish a fraud ring. A fraud ring can be run by a single person or a collection of individuals. However, under most circumstances, it is usually referred to as a group of criminals working together.
Back in February 2022, two men from Philadelphia were convicted of running a credit card fraud network with over 200,000 stolen accounts. This is one of the most common fraud methods that organized fraudsters implement to attack online merchants and retailers, resulting in significant chargeback rates.
As a result of these attacks, both legal cardholders and online merchants, as well as retailers, can be negatively affected.
The best way to stay away from such fraud is early fraud ring detection. It always pays off to know a thing or two about fraud rings.
Equipping your mind with the required knowledge and acting at the earliest are the best steps you can take to safeguard your business.
2. Best Cybersecurity Industry Practices
When it comes to cybercrime prevention, there is nothing called a one-size-fits-all solution.
Depending on the type of organization you are running and the industry it belongs to, there can be different cybersecurity threats, risks, vulnerabilities, capacities, and compliance requirements.
To offer a guideline to businesses around the world, global governments and authorities have established some recommended security practices.
Following these best industry practices would lessen these organizations’ risk of being hacked. Let us go through the four best cybersecurity industry best practices.
a) NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology)
NIST was developed by the United States Commerce Department. The document's goal is to provide a performance-based, prioritized, repeatable, flexible, and cost-effective approach, including information security measures and controls, that business owners and operators of critical infrastructure can voluntarily adopt to help them identify, assess, and manage cyber risks.
b) GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation)
GDPR went into effect in 2018 to safeguard European Union individuals' data and privacy. These guidelines aim to safeguard even those Europeans who live abroad, as well as regulate the international companies that handle the data of EU citizens.
a) HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act)
HIPPA is less specific and stringent than the GDPR when it comes to how patient data and confidential personal health records should be handled, maintained, and transferred. However, it is one of the best cybersecurity practices that healthcare organizations are recommended to follow closely.
b) PCI SSC (Payment Card Industry Security Standards Council)
PCI SSC requires organizations that use bank account data and information to implement certain security measures.
The PCI Security Standards demand an encrypted transfer of cardholder’s data across public and open networks. It also suggests the use of robust access control methods, the installation of a vulnerability monitoring program, and other data security standards.
3. Put in Place Digital and Physical Security Measures
You are probably already aware of some of the best ways to prevent cyberattacks are to use antivirus, firewalls, network and server monitoring, and other physical and digital data center security measures.
However, those are not the ultimate solution when it comes to preventing instances of cybercrime.
Apart from hacktivists and those nation-state actors pursuing political aims, many modern cybercriminals are just seeking methods to make money.
We don’t intend to make you worried, but frankly, these hacktivists can easily steal money using wire transfer fraud. They can also do so by stealing personal and bank account information, or even intellectual property and private research.
Thankfully, there are remedies you can implement to keep the possibilities of such cyberattacks at bay. As a general rule of thumb, the more difficult your defenses are to breach and the more responsive you are to their attacks, the more effort a hacker will have to put in to achieve their objectives.
Keeping such security measures in place would ensure that your company becomes a less easy target for cybercriminals. When it comes to identifying a target for a cybersecurity assault, hackers constantly look for targets with the least security measures in place.
One of the most crucial parts of cybercrime prevention is to harden your defenses to such a point that a hacker perceives your organization as a difficult target. Make sure that they have to put in significant effort to breach your systems.
4. Manage Your Domain's SSL/TLS Certificates and Keys
When it comes to the strengthening of cybersecurity, no discussion session would be deemed complete without mentioning the importance of adopting a secure protocol for your website. You may already be aware of the fact that “HTTPS”, or the secure version of the hypertext transfer protocol, is required for all websites, regardless of their content type.
SSL and TLS certificates, also known as secure sockets layer and transport layer security, help authorize the identity of websites and enable secure, encrypted communication through a TLS handshake process.
In short, SSL/TLS certificates serve mainly three purposes:
- Authenticate your website
- Assure data integrity
- Establish a secure, encrypted connection between a user's web browser and the website’s web server
Installing SSL/TSL certificates is the first step you can take to secure your website’s functionality. However, the journey doesn't end there. You must keep your encryption keys and SSL/TSL certificates updated at all times, and ensure they don’t expire.
5. Train Your Organization’s First Line of Defense
In this modern era of cyber assaults, it’s worth investing in an employee training program that educates them about the unforeseen threats and dangers of the cyber world.
It is crucial for organizations to ensure that their employees know how to recognize cyberattacks and respond to such dangers immediately.
All employees (be it C-level executives or janitors), should be trained in cybersecurity. Such employee training programs can help them to:
- Detect phishing attempts and other email frauds
- Use the internet responsibly
- Familiarize themselves with and adhere to your organization's cybersecurity policies
- Recognize the dangers of social media
- Collect, store, manage, and communicate customer and company data securely
- Follow all government and industry rules
Your staff is the first line of defense for your business. While automated cybersecurity solutions like antivirus, firewalls, and anti-malware can help, they can't stop every danger.
Your staff must be able to spot and respond to threats that get past your network's defenses swiftly. They must also understand how to avoid creating hazards by properly handling sensitive data and information. Make sure you educate them on these cybersecurity mistakes to avoid.
Conclusion
Before we wrap up for the day, we would like to offer you some advice.
It is highly crucial that you evaluate and probe your network and other IT systems to figure out if there is any underlying cybersecurity threat.
Additionally, you should also establish extended safeguards such as following the cyber security practices mentioned in this blog.
There are numerous types of security-related rules to adhere to, including computer use policies, remote access policies, password policies (using the best password manager might be the ideal option), email/communication policies, and so on.
Each of these policies has its set of advantages. We believe that this blog will help you stop cybercrime in the future.
Nuno
I'm a filmmaker with extensive training in multiple sectors of content creation whose films have been shown all over the world. I have also served as a speaker and jury member in multiple events. Nonetheless, in recent years, I became extremely disappointed with the course of the art world in general, and as consequence, I've developed an interest in topics I believed would become crucial for the future, namely, cybersecurity, self-education, web design, and investing in various assets, such as cryptocurrencies. All those events have driven me to launch RushRadar.