Criminals evolving through cyber world

With the internet opening up several streams of opportunity, criminals are becoming more sophisticated and dangerous in their activities, said experts at a cyber security conference held in Abu Dhabi on Monday.

The Cyber Resilience and InfoSec conference saw a host of company and information technology executives come together to discuss the latest trends in cyber security as well as the need for companies and organisations around the world to be ready to handle any cyber security threats.

Steve Gaudin, the legal attaché for the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) at the US Embassy in Abu Dhabi, said crime had largely changed from the past because of the cyber element that is involved nowadays.

“Crime has been around long before the iPhone and long before we had landline telephones. Every crime that happens today has an element of cyber to it,” he said.

“How does a [criminal] person move money from New Zealand to New York City, how do they communicate, [and] how do they come up with and share their plans together. Maybe 20 years ago it would take a week or a month or a year for something to happen on this side of the world to have an effect on the other side of the world. Now, [a person] can do it all [and make a big effect] through an iPhone, or in their mother’s basement, or they can hide in an internet cafe in another country,” he added.

Gaudin said the only element of crime that remained the same was the human factor, and just like in the past it would take good law enforcement to put an end to the activities of cyber criminals.

“Crime has changed, but it’s [still] a human problem, and not a machine problem. We can’t solve the problem by using machine against machine, we can solve it by human to human interaction, and that’s where the FBI can help.”

Gaudin said it was important for law enforcement agencies to work together with companies to counter the cyber security threat.

“We need to embed law enforcement authorities in companies so as soon as something happens [we can react]. [The cyber threat] could be from a man or woman across the world, or it could even be from the company’s own IT administrator. The internet is nameless and faceless.”

source : gulfnews