According to Scalar Decisions Inc.’s 2019 study on Canadian organizations’ cyber resilience, independently conducted by IDC Canada, “[o]ne hundred per cent of Canadian organizations experienced a cyber-attack last year, suffering an average of 12.5 breaches per year”. The study further indicates that the average cost “per organization of responding to, and recovering from, cyber security incidents increased to between $4.8 million to $5.8 million, up from $3.7 million last year”.
Cybersecurity is fast becoming the most important consideration for Canadian organizations and the abovementioned statistics underpin that cybersecurity precautions are the most important considerations for organizations right now. The Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police (CACP) agrees and in an effort to advance a national cybercrime strategy for Canada, has joined forces with the Canadian Advanced Technology Alliance (CATAAlliance) to create the eCrime Cyber Council (ECC).
The CACP and CATAAlliance summarise the purpose of the ECC as, “seeking to work collectively and collaboratively to determine the technology and educational awareness needs of those seeking to stop or reduce the harmful effects of cybercrime in Canada – both private and public sector stakeholders – for the purpose of advancing this community’s capacity, leadership, knowledge, and skills, adding, our main goal is to enable the citizens of Canada and our governments to fully realize upon the advantages of a cyber enabled world, while remaining safe and free from harm and victimization.”
As the methods by which cybercrime are committed are getting increasingly sophisticated, law enforcement experience considerable challenges to detect and deter these forms of crime. In this post, we detail some of the evolving cybercrime threats currently prevalent in Canada according to Royal Canadian Mounted Police reports.
- Darknets
Darknets are online file sharing networks, providing users with anonymity by way of technology such as encryption. Criminals use darknets to broker illegal goods and services, using anonymous online networks to avoid being detected. These networks are especially attractive to criminals since it conceals online transactions such as online purchase and sales of drugs, counterfeit goods and other illicit products.
- Cybercrime-as-a-service
The commercialization of hacking and associated services such as malware-as-a-service, ransomware-as-a-service, DDoS-as-a-service and phishing-as-a-service are becoming everyday services that can be obtained online via the darknets mentioned above.
- Malware targeting mobile platforms
Daily activities such as shopping and banking are increasingly done via smartphone apps, which rely on a digital network. However, this has also exacerbated data safety issues. Hackers now use malware to access personal information on mobile platforms in order to steal online assets and conduct other criminal activities.
- Cybercrime threats to industrial control systems
The scope and extent of malicious activities directly targeting industrial control systems (ICS) increased significantly since 2017 and can have a disastrous impact on ICS including but not limited to extensive downtime to physical damage and destruction. Wormable ransomware such as WannaCry and NotPetya are only two examples of such threats.
We have successfully assisted numerous organizations recover from ransomware attacks and, with threats to your data increasing daily, can you really afford to call us today? Your data is always safe with Stage2Data!
