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Coronavirus prompts upward trend in cyber crime

Europol’s 2020 cyber crime report updates on the latest trends and the current impact of cyber crime within the EU and beyond.

Since Europol published last year’s Internet Organised Crime Threat Assessment, the global coronavirus pandemic has forced us to reimagine our societies and reinvent the way we work and live. During the lockdown, we turned to the internet for a sense of normality: shopping, working and learning online at a scale never seen before.

It is in this new normal that Europol publishes its 7th annual IOCTA, which seeks to map the cyber crime threat landscape and understand how law enforcement responds to it. Although the coronavirus crisis showed us how criminals actively take advantage of society at its most vulnerable, this opportunistic behaviour of criminals should not overshadow the overall threat landscape. In many cases, Europe states, coronavirus has enhanced existing problems.

Criminals use innovative methods to increase the volume and sophistication of their attacks, and inexperienced cybercriminals can carry out phishing campaigns more easily through crime as-a-service. Criminals quickly exploited the pandemic to attack vulnerable people; phishing, online scams and the spread of fake news became an ideal strategy for cybercriminals seeking to sell items they claim will prevent or cure coronavirus.

Europol says that encryption continues to be a clear feature of an increasing number of services and tools. One of the principal challenges for law enforcement is how to access and gather relevant data for criminal investigations. The value of being able to access data of criminal communication on an encrypted network is perhaps the most effective illustration of how encrypted data can provide law enforcement with crucial leads beyond the area of cyber crime.

The report also warned that ransomware attacks have become more sophisticated, targeting specific organisations in the public and private sector through victim reconnaissance. While the pandemic has triggered an increase in cyber crime, ransomware attacks were targeting the healthcare industry long before the crisis. Moreover, criminals have included another layer to their ransomware attacks by threatening to auction off the comprised data, increasing the pressure on the victims to pay the ransom. Advanced forms of malware are a top threat in the EU: criminals have transformed some traditional banking Trojans into modular malware to cover more PC digital fingerprints, which are later sold for different needs.

Catherine De Bolle, Europol’s executive director, said: “Cyber crime affects citizens, businesses and organisations across the EU. Europol plays a key role in countering cybercrime by working with our many partners in law enforcement and the private sector and by offering innovative solutions and effective, comprehensive support to investigations. I hope this analysis can inform effective responses to these evolving threats and make Europe safer.”

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