Today, the Center for Electronic Governance hosted the conference entitled “The Cybercrime economy and its service-based nature”. The event is part of the cyber security month action spectrum. The cyber security month represents the most important European initiative aimed at increasing public awareness on the threats of this nature.

The special guest, Mr. Wim van Campen, vice president of Northern and Eastern Europe for McAfee – a reputable company in the cyber security field, shared theoretical and practical solutions on cyber security as well as a number of worrying statistics. 

“In the real world it is easier to steal a million dollars once, while in the virtual world it is easier to steal a dollar a million times”

One of the biggest problems is that, to this day, the society is not aware of the seriousness of the problem. Global Risk Report – 2014 (annual report published by the World Economic Forum) includes the cyber attacks and data losses in the 31 threats to the global stability in 2014.

Even though this problem is quite complex, the solution can be found in simplistic actions. There is no need for you to be a cyber security expert; all you have to do is to start with the essentials such as the use of different passwords for each website you are visiting.

“There have already been cases of theft – through a single, 1.3 billion user accounts’ automated operation, a fact that confirms once again that most websites do not comply with the minimum security rules” 

Moreover, within the context of payments, services and documents digitization it is imperative that each individual realize the severity of such problems as the identity and intellectual property theft. 

“If taken separately, a copy of the identity card and of the bank account number are absolutely harmless, but together they can turn into a big information security problem” especially since behind the cyber crimes does not stand a virtuous teenager, eager to assert himself (a still widespread and completely erroneous perception) but a complex structure will well defined actions and objectives.

 “Everything that a cyber criminal needs today is a credit card, he does not need to be a technical gurus, he does not require a business plan, but only a credit card. Now you can buy in absolute legal conditions, platforms that can steal data (credit card, login and password) or spam services.”

The cyber attacks are directed primarily towards obtaining information, thing that makes companies even more vulnerable

The first cyber attacks have begun in 2006. In 2009, a series of massive attacks on the oil, gas and petrochemical industries named the Night Dragon was registered.

Sursa: blogs.mcafee.com

These well-organized and targeted attacks, orchestrated by a group of enthusiastic cyber criminals, are rapidly growing. If the Night Dragon target was specifically the energy sector, its tools and techniques can be successfully used in the cyber assault of any industry. Another aspect, that makes companies even more vulnerable, is the target of these attacks – they do not aim at hollowing out or disrupting the company activity, but stealing information vital to a company and intellectual property.

In this context, both at individual and company level, such practices as assessing own vulnerability and risk exposure and observing at least the cyber security minimum safety requirements are becoming imperative.