The Rise of E-Crime
This week, hackers released a database of personal data on over 533 million Facebook users, including emails, phone numbers and more (You can check to see if you were part of the leak here). Security experts say that this information has been available on dark-web for a while, and this recent “leak” is just a large accumulation of previously leaked data.
Am I in trouble?
Because this information is not new to hackers on the dark web, you may not experience an increase in theft attempts to you as a person; however, this large, aggregated leak is a treasure trove for hackers and cyber criminals hoping to steal from e-commerce companies.
Oh dang.
In 2020 alone, Sift estimates that more than $1 trillion was lost globally due to cybercrime. According to the same report, 62% of all payment fraud took place on a mobile device, and 45% of the U.S. e-commerce market was conducted on mobile devices in 2020. The perps mainly used ransom-ware attacks (taking control of a company’s systems and extorting them for money) or by using email-delivered malware to learn passwords and siphon funds.
Who are they targeting?
Transportation was the top targeted vertical, with reports of coordinated efforts to steal food/liquor deliveries in broad daylight. Also, loyalty businesses was the top targeted industry with a 275% increase in fraud attempts.
Where does this money go?
Video games mostly… actually. The top item purchased by cybercriminals is video game currency, followed by cryptocurrencies and site credits.
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