Evolution of cybercrime and current challenges of our time

The life of a modern person is closely intertwined with the Internet. For some, it is a place to search for useful information, entertainment content, and communicate with friends and acquaintances. For others, it is an environment for promoting their own name, brand, products, and services. For others, it is a place to provide their own services in the field of marketing, SEO, traffic arbitrage, and many other areas. But, regardless of which category you belong to, the risks of working online will be quite serious. Moreover, recently they have become much more serious, causing a lot of negative consequences and serious risks.

And here it is important to understand that banal password hacking is not enough. The actions of modern cybercriminals are becoming more sophisticated, multi-level, and multi-directional. Internet attackers have learned to fake real events using deepfakes. No one is surprised by tracking people using advertising modules. Not to mention the theft of cryptocurrencies, and in fairly large amounts. And all this is happening in a rapidly changing cybersecurity environment, where most of the classic investigation methods no longer work. This is further complicated by the fact that the line between the real world and the virtual environment is gradually blurring. And all this is happening at a terrifyingly high speed.

Is it possible today to somehow counter such increased risks? Can we maintain our own privacy when working online? It is to these extremely relevant issues that we will devote today's review. In particular, we will talk about what modern cybercrime is. Can we talk about privacy of work on the Internet in general or has it already become just a myth? We will consider the deepfake technique and all the risks that cryptocurrency owners may face and whether it is possible to hide your own transactions. We will pay special attention to the problems that modern cybersecurity services face.

We will also talk about social engineering, which today has rightfully become the leading tool in the hands of cybercriminals. We will provide a number of recommendations that will allow you to improve your own cybersecurity, and also highlight the bottlenecks in each security system, including those related to the human factor. We will note a number of prospects for the foreseeable future. The information provided will help you comprehensively assess the problems of our time in the field of cybersecurity and understand how to act in order to ensure stable operation on the Internet with minimal risks.

What is it, the cybercrime of the present?

If you delve deeply into the issue of cybersecurity, analyze the actions of Internet intruders, you automatically come to the conclusion that hackers constantly manage to go literally one step ahead of all those actions taken by the security system. They find the smallest loopholes even in advanced systems, increase the effectiveness of their own methods of influence. Their work is becoming more sophisticated and at the same time very effective. If a few years ago, most Internet attackers hacked accounts, launched spam, and extracted user passwords, today the situation has changed dramatically. In particular, the modern arsenal of Internet attackers includes the following methods:

• Deepfakes. Here, using modern capabilities of artificial intelligence, fairly realistic video materials and audio recordings are created that can change a person's appearance and voice. As a result, false information is disseminated, and the audience is encouraged to perform actions that will be beneficial to the Internet attacker.
• Hidden surveillance. To implement such an idea, advertising modules are often used, as well as special tracking pixels that can automatically collect the most accurate and detailed user profiles. As a result, the attacker collects information for the subsequent launch of social engineering methods.
• Theft of cryptocurrencies by hacking exchanges and wallets. Also, scam projects and fraudulent ICOs are often used to implement such ideas. Considering the fact that cryptocurrencies have become extremely common among many users today, huge amounts of money are stored on such exchanges and virtual wallets. And it is quite natural that they are of increased interest to Internet attackers.
• Hacker attacks on big data. Here, cybercriminals target personal information about the user audience. They carry out mass attacks aimed at obtaining the relevant data. As a result, these huge arrays of personal information will become the basis for subsequent blackmail, targeted attacks, extortion.

All these methods are very often combined with each other, providing really high efficiency in the end. Moreover, here we are talking not only about expanding the tools in the hands of attackers. One of the most significant problems is that we are seeing mass commercialization of data that enters the black market. That is, today we are faced not with chaotic amateur actions, but with well-structured and thought-out actions of professional hackers. If you go to the DarkNet, walk around the marketplaces and forums, you can see how much there is: hacked databases, phishing tools, applications that allow you to create quite high-quality deepfakes in just a couple of clicks. And it is becoming more and more difficult to resist all this every day.

Privacy today is nothing more than a fiction?

In parallel with the development of cybercrime, methods are also being developed to counter the ever-growing threats. And many users may well assume that the presence of such tools as an ad blocker, VPN, proxy servers, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) should provide them with the most stable, secure work on the Internet. Yes, each of these methods works, gives quite good results in practice. But still, the main difficulty is that the life of a modern person has become extremely public. An example of this is social networks. People spend too much of their time here, posting personal information about themselves, often without even thinking about the consequences.

As a result, it is not a problem to analyze the daily activity of a particular person on the network and form a truly large volume of personal data. But it is very difficult to say in advance what their subsequent use will be. And the fact that you will face a large-scale influx of advertising as a result is, frankly speaking, the best possible outcome. It is much worse if your personal information is used for criminal purposes.

Why are we saying this? Because now the privacy of work on the Internet is more a myth than a reality, despite the huge number of additional services and tools aimed at ensuring security. Judge for yourself:

1. Active use of tracking, penetrating all spheres of human life. It is no secret that modern advertising networks install tracking pixels, special cookies on a huge number of different sites. As a result, any user click, transition, viewing, order placement is recorded by the system.
2. Mobile applications that require access to personal data, user location and related information at the setup and operation stage. This is something that significantly goes beyond their functionality as such. That is, the information that you reliably hid ends up in the hands of intruders.
3. Social networks. Most people absolutely voluntarily and without the slightest fear post their own photos, personal connections, stories on the Internet. This is all that can become an inexhaustible source of information for a person who clearly understands where and what he needs to look for.
4. Digitalization of important documents. For more convenient storage or for other purposes, many users, companies, financial and municipal institutions create an electronic database, filling it with banking, passport data, medical records. And all this can become the object of leaks.

And what will happen if Internet attackers manage to extract valuable information from each of these sources? They will receive the most accurate and clear portrait of a person, which, among other things, will cover his interests, financial component, immediate environment. Moreover, based on this information, vulnerabilities can be identified, which may well become the basis for future cyber attacks using social engineering methods. Today, hackers can even extract information from smart watches, fitness bracelets, combine it with geolocation information and find out what route a given person runs and at what time it happens. And if this person is pursuing the goal of entering into physical contact with you or conducting surveillance, then all the trump cards are in his hands.

Reality manipulation: deepfake technique

The world community began to actively talk about the deepfake technique itself several years ago. It all started with the fact that videos with celebrities and with rather provocative, ambiguous content began to actively appear on the Internet. At that time, such content was more entertaining in nature. It was also interesting for people due to the opportunity to experiment with artificial intelligence technologies, which at that time were just beginning to actively develop. There were many who wanted to experiment with neural networks. And for the most part, all this did not conceal any risks or dangers.

But very little time passed and the situation underwent radical changes. Among other things, cybercriminals also appreciated the prospects of these methods. They are the ones who turned the once entertaining idea into a fairly powerful digital weapon. The essence of deepfake itself is that attackers change the face or voice in a particular video material. And they do it all really well. So that it is extremely difficult to notice the substitution even for a person who is closely acquainted with the person being copied. All this is done using special services based on artificial intelligence, capable of changing faces, transforming speech, copying intonations, manner, timbre.

That is, Internet attackers create fake videos that can subsequently be used for various purposes. Here are just the most common moments:

• Implementing targeted transfers. Here, attackers can copy the appearance and speech of a company manager, sending a corresponding video to an accountant with a request to transfer a certain amount of money to a particular account as quickly as possible. As a result, a person sees a familiar face, hears a voice. He does not have even the slightest suspicion that this is not his manager. As a result, attackers receive a lot of money without much time and effort.
• Ensuring political influence. With the help of deepfakes, false information is very often leaked, scandals are provoked, panic moods develop in society, opponents and competitors are discredited.
• Extortion and blackmail. Here we are talking about attackers launching fake videos with compromising content, which are then used as a tool to blackmail the victim.

One of the really serious problems associated with deepfakes is the increased complexity during the investigation. The fact is that the algorithms here are constantly changing, and the realism of the picture itself is very, very high. Using detection methods based on shadow mismatches, incorrect blinking or uncharacteristic facial expressions does not give the desired results. The fact is that, thanks to the use of artificial intelligence technology, attackers manage to create content whose originality cannot be detected by classic tools. Of course, today there are already methods that allow for deep analysis of distortions, up to the recognition of micro-expressions on the face. But still, these solutions are very often inferior to the tools that are in service with modern hackers.

Risks of anonymity when working with cryptocurrencies

Cryptocurrencies themselves were initially created as something that would be protected from any external control. They promised the audience the highest possible degree of anonymity, the absence of any control, restrictions, intermediaries. But gradually, as the popularity of cryptographic coins grew, in particular the same Bitcoin, many realized that blockchain technology is not always absolute anonymity. The fact is that the transparency of the blockchain itself has led to the fact that absolutely any user can track the entire chain of transactions, and if desired, even identify the relationship between wallets and people's personalities.

If you carefully analyze the entire cryptocurrency market, you can see that most users interact with exchanges in their work, whose work is based on Know Your Customer (KYC) technology. This is a solution that involves confirming the user's identity at the stage of withdrawing funds. As a result, in this environment, absolutely every transaction is completely open. It is this vulnerability that has provided attackers with the opportunity to gain access to user information, and government agencies - to track suspicious transactions.

But even in those systems where the level of confidentiality is at a fairly high level, be it coins such as Monero, Zcash, analytical companies will still be able to use their tools and identify the real identity of a person. Although, to tell the truth, they do not always succeed in doing this well. But still, here we can say that anonymity in the cryptocurrency environment is the same myth as the security of work on the Internet in general.

Attempts to hide fraudulent activity in crypto

Continuing the topic of cryptocurrency, it is also worth noting that cybercriminals not only try to get hold of such funds, but also actively use this environment to conduct their illegal activities. In particular, they use popular coins, actively confusing all traces of the transactions. To implement such ideas, they use different methods:

1. Frequent change of IP addresses. Hackers are well aware of the blockchain methodology itself, its transparency. And to bypass such a restriction, they connect a large number of addresses, and then transfer money through them in small parts.
2. Use of so-called cryptographic mixers. Here we are talking about special platforms that are able to mix all kinds of wallets, transactions, which significantly complicates, and in some cases makes it impossible to track the entire chain of transfers.
3. Use of anonymous cryptocurrencies. The so-called "privacy coins", which today include Monero, Zcash, Dash, are able to work in the PrivateSend format. Here, special encryption mechanisms are used that reliably hide all transactions, making tracking almost impossible.
4. P2P platforms. Here, especially for cash, it is quite possible to use the platforms for personal purposes, making certain transactions. This is what allows you to effectively bypass the requirements of the platforms for entering personal information.
5. Connecting to DarkNet services. In the dark side of the Internet, you can find many thematic forums that present ready-made schemes for cashing out money, converting, legalizing crypto assets, including "yesterday's".

But even these methods do not guarantee absolute concealment of the transaction. Today, in many countries of the world, various sanctions have been introduced at the state level aimed at identifying fraudulent activities. In addition, cryptocurrency platforms themselves are forced to work with law enforcement agencies. And the blockchain technology itself has undergone radical changes, allowing you to effectively avoid all sorts of tricks. But we repeat that cybercriminals try to bypass all these tools and prohibitions. As soon as an additional obstacle appears in their path, they immediately look for counteraction. And it is impossible to say for sure that this or that method that allows detecting transactions of intruders today will remain relevant tomorrow.

Is there a chance to reliably conceal crypto transactions?

To be completely honest, today there is no way to ensure absolute confidentiality in the blockchain. Moreover, practice shows that the attention of law enforcement agencies and analytical firms is massively attracted by cases where the volume of stolen funds is high, when there is no way for certain persons to prove the legality of the funds received. But at the same time, Internet attackers manage to hide quite well for a long period of time thanks to a poorly thought-out strategy and the use of various solutions. In particular, the following solutions are used in practice:

• a combination of various services and blockchains;
• connection to regulated exchanges through third-party accounts;
• use of illegal channels to change documents, create a new digital identity;
• organization of collective work, in which the final reward is distributed equally between the participants;

But still, despite such comprehensive measures, every step of cybercriminals when trying to switch to fiat funds, involving the registration of accounts, as well as the manifestation of any other factors characteristic of ordinary human behavior, be it mistakes made, IP address leaks, email, significantly increases the likelihood of disclosing a digital identity. This is where we get quite successful operations to catch Internet intruders who managed to steal huge amounts of cryptocurrency. And there are many, many such examples today. Here, everything depends on the efforts made, the resources involved, the time spent by the agencies that specialize in investigating these incidents.

Modern Problems with Solving Cybercrimes

At the very beginning of our review, we said that classical methods of investigation in the information space have already significantly lost their effectiveness today. This is largely due to the fact that now the criminal world is very dynamic, characterized by the increased complexity of the technologies used. In addition, an ordinary police officer who is used to monotonously checking alibis, taking fingerprints will not be able to catch an Internet intruder. Here, it is imperative to have deep knowledge in the field of cryptography, information security, and big data analysis. To assess the social networks and connections of a criminal, it is also important to be a good psychologist. And this means that the fight against cybercriminals should be carried out not only by investigators, but also by such fairly narrow specialists as:

1. IT specialists. They will undertake technical expertise of hacks, Trojans, and encryptors.
2. Linguists, psychologists. Their responsibilities will include analyzing the style of communications, text messages in order to identify characteristic signs of fraud.
3. Data scientists. These are specialists who visualize and analyze large amounts of data.
4. Cryptographic analysts. Having a thorough understanding of the cryptocurrency sphere, they will be able to track transactions, analyze token "mixing" schemes.

Each of these specialists will have their own tools at their disposal that will allow them to automate upcoming work, increase its accuracy, efficiency, and reduce the time for implementation.

Social engineering methods used by Internet attackers

If you carefully study modern cyber attacks, you can see that the technical side of the issue does not always play the main role. Modern Internet attackers rely on people's psychological vulnerability, that is, they use social engineering in practice. The fact is that it is much easier and simpler to deceive a person than to spend a lot of time and effort on hacking a complex algorithm. And here the effectiveness, as a rule, is higher. Here are just a few real examples that cybercriminals use, relying on social engineering:

• Calls from alleged security services. Hackers often pose as employees of banks and other financial institutions and trick gullible people into giving up their card numbers and related important data, pointing out the need to increase their level of security.
• Phishing mailings. Despite the fact that everyone around is talking about the dangers of clicking on unknown links, there are still people who still click on an attractive link, ending up on fake sites that read their personal data and more.
• Mailings in messengers. In practice, this also gives good results when interacting with gullible people. Here, the essence lies in sending supposedly official notifications of frightening content, stimulating the performance of one or another action, be it clicking on a link, indicating certain personal information.
• Promises of benefits. Alternatively, users often receive mailings with documents that supposedly contain profitable commercial offers, important reports that are useful to the audience. But in fact, they may contain spyware or viruses that will automatically launch after downloading such a document.

High efficiency of social engineering is the result of an integrated approach. In order to find the right words for each individual person, you need to understand who to focus on. Cybercriminals initially study the profile of a potential victim, their habits, identify psychological weaknesses, and create algorithms, following which decisions are made. Most of this information is collected from open sources, be it social media accounts, comments, or posts left on thematic forums. So, if it turns out that you are a fan of Nike sneakers, you may receive a message with an offer to buy a cult model that is just entering the market. Agree that this is an offer that might interest you.

Reliable recommendations for improving personal cybersecurity

Despite the fact that cybercriminals are constantly improving their methods, inventing new tools and tricks, and traditional detection methods have lost their relevance, each user can independently ensure fairly good security when working on the Internet for themselves. Here we are talking about a set of universal recommendations that absolutely each of you should use. In particular:

1. Connecting multi-factor authentication. This is what significantly complicates hacking your account and in some cases makes Internet attackers abandon this idea.
2. Scanning all links and addresses before clicking on them. Practice shows that even fairly short and clear URLs can lead you to fake pages. If you place an order here, of course you will not receive it, even if you pay money.
3. Always use patches for operating systems, applications, antiviruses, install updates as soon as they appear on the market. This is what will allow you to exclude outdated vulnerabilities and maintain the most stable, efficient, and secure operation.
4. A message from any unknown contacts should arouse your suspicions and encourage additional checks. You should be especially wary of messages containing offers of help, gifts of one kind or another. Check all this several times before deciding to interact.
5. If you work with cryptocurrencies, then connect reliable wallets. Moreover, it is better to store large amounts in so-called "cold" wallets, because they do not have a direct connection to the Internet.
6. Before sharing important information, especially personal data, think several times, make sure that we are talking about reliable people. Don't make the mistake of personally exposing your sensitive information to cybercriminals.
7. Be very careful when using public Wi-Fi networks. Ideally, avoid them altogether or use a secure connection, whether it's a VPN or a proxy server.

Yes, all these recommendations are extremely simple and even banal in many ways, but, nevertheless, they work. They really show excellent results in practice and are able to prevent many hacker attacks or at least reduce their effectiveness. Make sure not to become a victim of modern Internet intruders.

“Bottlenecks” in ensuring security when working on the network

Current trends in the global information security environment today indicate that the foreseeable prospects here are not particularly bright. Individual hackers unite with each other, forming some kind of corporations. They develop their own attacks, fraudulent schemes, exploits, launch all sorts of limited-access promotions as part of their own advertising campaigns, and form large-scale distribution channels. Moreover, they even have their own support services. And it is extremely difficult for a specialized body to identify all this. Especially when it comes to international hacker corporations. Access to relevant information by law enforcement agencies will be seriously hampered by bureaucracy, various legislative norms, and a shortage of good specialists.

It is also important to understand that the more an ordinary person lets information technology into their life, the more vulnerabilities they open up to attackers, literally inviting them to commit one or another illegal act. That is, the same Internet of Things, autonomously operating equipment, medical equipment, and everything that is part of smart home technology today can become the so-called "entry point" for hackers. And those threats that not so long ago seemed very serious to many, be it a leak of correspondence today, already seem like child's play. By the way, if you didn't know, smart TVs can spy on you, hackers can connect to city management systems, energy infrastructure, factories. We are not trying to scare you, but we are simply pointing out how serious modern cyber threats are becoming and urging you to take personal care of your own online security.

The Role of the Human Factor in Cybercrime Investigations

It is the human factor that is considered the most vulnerable link for both Internet attackers themselves and security service specialists who are working to improve cyber resilience. The fact is that one person or another may simply misunderstand the technical aspects of hacking, which will ultimately lead him down the wrong path. There is also a possibility that important information may accidentally end up in the wrong hands. The same hacker may fall into the hands of law enforcement agencies if he boasts about stolen cryptocurrency on a thematic forum or on social networks, or makes a transfer from a closed wallet to an open one.

Of course, it is in the interests of both parties to minimize all these leaks and dangers. As a result, evidence encryption, confidentiality protocols, fake legends and pseudonyms are actively used in practice. But still, there is always a risk of doing something wrong and leaking important information. And here you can’t do without increased caution and attentiveness.

Let's sum it up

The topic of cybercrime and hacker attacks is quite diverse and multifaceted. And this is not surprising, since we are not talking about a closed phenomenon concentrated in a particular niche, but about a large-scale business and a threat that has engulfed the entire digital environment. And it is extremely difficult for an ordinary user, far from complex modern technologies, methods, and tools, to withstand all this. And here basic rules come to the rescue, which will be relevant absolutely always and everywhere.

Along with the points that we described in today's review, we would like to draw special attention to such a product as mobile proxies. Here we are talking about an intermediary server that will provide reliable substitution of your real IP-address, geolocation with its own technical parameters, thereby ensuring reliable protection of your device from any unauthorized access. One of the best solutions in this market segment is offered by the MobileProxy.Space service. Here on favorable terms you can purchase private mobile proxies that will provide you with unrivaled indicators of privacy and security of work on the Internet, effective bypass of regional blocking, use of services for automation of routine and monotonous work and more. Take advantage of free testing of the product to make sure of its high efficiency, functionality, reliability.

Share this article: