“The Dark Web sees personal information sold to this day. In 2020, organizations like NASA, McDonald’s, Visa, MasterCard, Microsoft, and Google have experienced security breaches, leading to theft of credit card details, online banking logins, and social media credentials. Later, all this information can be found sold on the Dark Web. PrivacyAffairs.com collected hundreds of examples of data being sold and reported the prices on their Dark Web Price Index … In the United States, the average annual expense for dealing with cybercrime increased by 29% in 2018, reaching $27.4 million. Credit card details are sold on the Dark Web from $14-$30, which include the card number, associated dates, and CVV. Personal data such as an address, email, and phone number may also be included.”

“American victims reported $4.2 billion in losses as a result of cybercrime and internet fraud to the FBI in 2020, a roughly 20% uptick in the money known to be lost to scammers in 2019, the bureau said in a new report.  The FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center, the organization through which U.S. citizens and businesses report financial losses from hackers, said in its annual report released Wednesday that it received an average of more than 2,000 complaints per day through 2020.”

“The method of attack, which has not been previously reported or demonstrated in detail, has implications for cybercrime, where criminals often take over target’s phone numbers in order to harass them, drain their bank account, or otherwise tear through their digital lives. The attack also brings up issues around private, corporate, and national security, where once a hacker gains a foothold on a victim’s phone number, they may be able to intercept sensitive information or personal secrets.”

“The European Banking Authority (EBA) has been the subject of a cyber-attack against its Microsoft Exchange Servers, which is affecting many organisations worldwide. The Agency has swiftly launched a full investigation, in close cooperation with its ICT provider, a team of forensic experts and other relevant entities.”

“Tens of thousands of sellers are using the ecommerce platform Shopify to scam consumers and sell counterfeit goods, after the company’s rapid growth has left it exposed to fraudsters. According to the ecommerce authentication service FakeSpot, which analysed more than 120,000 Shopify sites, as many as 21 per cent posed a risk to shoppers.”

“Hackers believed to be working for Russia have been monitoring internal email traffic at the U.S. Treasury and Commerce departments, according to people familiar with the matter, adding they feared the hacks uncovered so far may be the tip of the iceberg.”

“Big banks and other financial firms predict the cost of warding off cyber criminals will keep climbing in 2021 as they work to secure digital financial services popularized by the pandemic. Cybersecurity topped the list of expected budget increases in a survey of technology spending conducted by Deloitte & Touche LLP, with 64% of executives at financial firms around the globe forecasting a rise. Part of the survey results was made available to Bloomberg News in advance of the December release.”

“Mastercard today announced Cyber Secure, a first-of-its-kind, AI-powered suite of tools that allows banks to assess cyber risk across their ecosystem and prevent potential breaches. With these capabilities, banks can identify and prioritize threats and vulnerabilities throughout their cyber environment. Additionally, acquiring banks can help merchants understand their own cyber risk, preventing hundreds of millions of dollars in potential fraud.”

“North Korean hackers are tapping into banks around the globe to make fraudulent money transfers and cause ATMs to spit out cash, the U.S. government warned on Wednesday. A technical cybersecurity alert jointly written by four different federal agencies, including the Treasury Department and FBI, said there had been a resurgence in financially motivated hacking efforts by the North Korean regime this year after a lull in activity.”

“The FBI advises the public to be cautious when downloading apps on smartphones and tablets, as some could be concealing malicious intent. Cyber actors target banking information using banking trojans, which are malicious programs that disguise themselves as other apps, such as games or tools. When the user launches a legitimate banking app, it triggers the previously downloaded trojan that has been lying dormant on their device. The trojan creates a false version of the bank’s login page and overlays it on top of the legitimate app. Once the user enters their credentials into the false login page, the trojan passes the user to the real banking app login page so they do not realize they have been compromised.”

“Diebold Nixdorf, a major provider of automatic teller machines (ATMs) and payment technology to banks and retailers, recently suffered a ransomware attack that disrupted some operations. The company says the hackers never touched its ATMs or customer networks, and that the intrusion only affected its corporate network.”

“As the malware quickly spread, locking up server after server, Finastra’s information security team evaluated its dwindling options before settling on the nuclear one: The company pulled all potentially infected servers offline. First, hundreds, then thousands, came down. The attack ground to a halt—as did critical parts of Finastra’s business. In an instant, services for many of Finastra’s customers went dark.”

“Travelex, known for its ubiquitous foreign-exchange kiosks in airports and tourist sites around the world, was shut down by a computer virus that infiltrated its networks early this year. It responded by paying the hackers the equivalent of $2.3 million, according to a person familiar with the transaction. Travelex’s payment of the ransom, and the amount, hasn’t previously been reported, though the company confirmed the ransomware attack shortly after it occurred.”

“Security researchers have found a way to bypass that limit on Visa cards. Their hack, which isn’t limited to U.K. cards, could let opportunistic crooks drain accounts with a single tap, and they claim they don’t even need to steal the credit card . And little on Visa’s side is being done to address this fresh fraud threat. Forbes let the researchers—Leigh-Anne Galloway and Tim Yunusov from cybersecurity company Positive Technologies—try it out on a personal Visa card. They extracted three successful payments of £31 ($38). On their own cards they made contactless payments as high as £101, though it’s possible more could be stolen with just a tap.”

“Due to a booming cybercrime scene, India is expected to surpass the UK in 2019 and become the second-most targeted country for payment card fraud, behind the undisputed leader, the US.According to cybercrime statistics compiled by cyber-security firm Gemini Advisory, over 3.2 million Indian payment card records have been compromised and posted for sale online in 2018, a big jump from the previous year, when details for only 800,000 Indian payment cards had been posted on cybercrime forums.”

“Each attack can be divided into several identical stages. At the first stage, a cybercriminal entered the organization’s building under the guise of a courier, job seeker, etc., and connected a device to the local network, for example, in one of the meeting rooms. Where possible, the device was hidden or blended into the surroundings, so as not to arouse suspicion.”

“As long as the data involves human activity, regardless of the type of data or the demographics of the users, similar behavioral dynamics apply. These patterns can be used to detect emerging behavioral trends before they can be observed by other data analytics techniques. And among those trends in which social physics may prove useful: cyber criminal activities.”