Lennon and McCartney geniuses ahead of their time penned and chanted these famous words of wisdom back in the 1960’s. Although you could argue against it, they are probably true words.
Recently, I was doing some research at work – looking into the current trends and what’s on the horizon in the world of cyber threats and attacks and wanted to add some weight to the overriding conclusion that although not much has changed in the threat picture over the years – the ferocity and general ease of mounting attacks is certainly an area for concern.
The latter part of 2021 looks like it will see a rise in botnet attacks looking to steal credentials, remotely access our IT systems and create denial of service wherever possible. Month on month throughout this year there has been a sizeable increase in these types of attacks.
If you study cyber threats you will know all about threat actors, system vulnerabilities, motives and impacts. These elements all come together in the creation of a cyber risk assessment and the harsh reality is that there are so many threats, vulnerabilities and motives that the risks are wide ranging and multiple.
Where there is a motive – there is a way.
Do as many calculations, create as many matrices as you like – it’s a never ending problem.
Those of us that work, research and train in the world of cyber are not surprised by this. Month on month, year on year you watch and defend against the same types of attack, launched from the same types of threats against the same vulnerabilities and try as you might to build defences, avoid the risk and educate the users – you know that you are never going to win the war.
Criminals (cyber criminals if you like) are clever, insightful, resourceful and will take advantage at any opportunity to line their pockets. That’s what criminals are and that’s what criminals do. Mostly their motive is financial gain. And although I totally disagree with the criminal mindset, I understand the motive.
I have seen some stuff in my time and I have been shocked, scared, confused and angry at some of things I have witnessed in the many places and roles that I have undertaken. Sometimes I see things that just make me sad.
I work alongside a lot of law enforcement officers in my current role and I am honoured to be part of the process that trains them in cyber security, investigation, protection and anything else that makes their jobs easier.
The officers face the impacts of cyber attacks against victims at all levels on a daily basis. It could be a large or small business or it could be people like you and I just going about our daily lives. The cyber threat is real and not going anywhere. It’s an ongoing war against crime. The tangible and intangible impact is devasting to the victims.
During my recent research – to add a bit of context, I included a couple of screen grabs from some Darkweb market sites which were offering botnets for sale at bargain prices. This was primarily the focus of my research.
If you are not familiar with the Darkweb (probably best to keep it that way) – the Internet is effectively divided into three parts and think of it like an iceberg.
The top part (the bit you can see – and invariably the smallest bit) is the World Wide Web or the Surface Web. This holds all the sites that you can openly search and find stuff on. Underneath the surface you find the Deep Web which hosts sites which search engines don’t index and you need a special browser to access (or add-ons). Then deep down in the murky bottom is the Dark Web, which allows you to search for stuff anonymously and hosts, mostly untraceable, sites and content. Its not all dark and dirty down there but if that’s the life you lead – that’s where you will set up shop.
Think of the Dark Web Market places like Ebay or Amazon where anything goes. Lots of drugs and weapons but also malicious software, pirated material and you can hire hitmen for the right price. Scary place to shop.
This is nothing new and although it’s a shocking place to surf – I must also caveat this with the fact that there are some particularly unsavoury places that you should never cross the curiosity boundary for. So great care and caution should always be taken if you are tempted to go there.
In my recent research for malicious botnets and malware – one ‘service’ jumped out at me as it was the first time I had openly seen it on these sites. My police friends will probably not be shocked and will no doubt have come across these things – but for a few dollars you can submit a person’s name, email address or social media profile and let them generate a targeted, hate campaign against them.
Cyber Hate as a Service. No comeback to the originator – just a whole world of pain and anguish for the victim. I think it makes me more sad than shocked. No financial gain, often no political agenda just hate as a motive.
Hate crime is what they call it and cyber makes it easy. It makes me sad but not surprised. It also highlights how fine a line we draw when we use social media or internet communications in our daily lives. It is a risk that we should all be aware of.
Money can’t buy me love – but it appears it can buy you hate.
The Internet is great but life was slightly more groovy in the 60’s.
In fairness, if there was a 1960’s Darkweb it probably wouldn’t have been anymore different than the 2021 Darkweb. Only there would have been a market place for sex, drugs and rock and roll!
Peace and love.
(Don’t do drugs kids)
