Threat Actors in Cyber Crime
Whilst we always imagine that hackers are pimply faced nerds sitting in their parent's basement knocking back energy drinks whilst embarking on hacking marathons this, however, is far removed from the truth. Cybercrime is far more systematic, advanced and organised than ever before and last year overtook drugs to become the most profitable illicit industry. In 2015 U.S. victims paid over 24 million alone to ransomware groups who utilised the Cryptolocker trojan. These groups are well funded, well resourced and have the knowledge to get the job done. The core motive for cybercrime is purely financial either through the use of ransomware to extort or the theft of data which can be on-sold through the Dark Web. Cybercriminals predominantly use phishing operations as they are cheap, effective and generate a significant profit. Admittedly a targeted email attacked called a spear phishing campaign is trickier to protect against however a mass phishing campaign generates the best...