Cyber Security: Global status and trends

Linklaters has one of the longest-standing privacy and cyber security teams and clients benefit from our experience, over many years, of advising on some of the most serious hacking and data breach crises in the last decade. If your organisation is facing a serious cybercrime issue or wants to ensure you are prepared to handle a cyber incident, please contact one of the following members of the Linklaters global crisis response team.

Trends in cybercrime

In the “Internet Organised Crime Threat Assessment” report published in the course of 2018, Europol highlighted some latest trends in cybercrime:

• Cybercriminals used ransomware (such as the “WannaCry” attack) to target private companies and obtain a ransom in exchange for the release of certain of their data
• Distributed-Denial-of-Services (DDOS) attacks become low cost, and easier to deploy
• Even though geo-blocking measures have decreased this kind of cybercrime, skimming of payment cards is still a common issue in the EU
• Criminals continue to rely more and more on social engineering in order to carry out their cybercrimes. “Phishing” and “spearphishing” are widespread
• New types of cybercrime have emerged such as “cryptojacking”, which consists in exploiting an internet user’s bandwidth and processing power to mine crypto currencies

Looking ahead, experts expect:

• the dual use of artificial intelligence (ie both as a cyber threat as well as a cyber security defence mechanism)

• the multiplication of risks due to the increasing use of internet of things technology and machine to machine communications and the increasing collection of more and more data
• the use of “deep fakes” to deceive, blackmail and spread fake news
• the expanding involvement of state-sponsored actors