Baku, Azerbaijan, June 3
By Sara Israfilbayova – Trend:
The number of attacks on industrial IT systems increases by 20 percent every year, Pavel Krylov, Head of Secure Bank / Secure Portal at Group-IB, told Trend.
According to Krylov, in the context of the next round of a “cold war” or geopolitical clashes, attacks by governmental cyberarmies are no longer being made for gathering intelligence, but rather for establishing control over the resources of political opponents.
"This means that the purpose of these campaigns will most often be not just espionage, but also gaining access to critical systems. Facilities of critical infrastructure - nuclear power plants, airports, backbone networks, water canals, transportation facilities - are potential targets for hacker attacks," he said.
Krylov noted that the most common motive of cybercrimes is financial gain, whether it be theft of money or of information that can be sold. For this, cyber attacks are made on banks and their clients, various schemes of fraud, and extortion are being pulled off, among others.
“According to our data, criminals in Russia successfully attack 1 or 2 banks every month, and the average damage from the attack makes up $2 million,” Krylov said.
The expert further noted that the most popular crimes against individuals are the theft of money via Internet banking, from bank cards, using phishing methods and social engineering.
"Responsibility for the safety of user data and its protection from cyber threats should be, first and foremost, borne by businesses. Businesses should implement behavioral analysis systems on portals, websites and mobile banking. Businesses should be able to distinguish a user from a fraudster and impede fraudulent transactions," Krylov believes.
According to the expert, not many banks can boast of such “smart” systems. But by disregarding this aspect, banks risk becoming outsiders.
Krylov also noted that the top 3 countries of origin for the most active pro-government hacker groups are China, North Korea and Iran.
Azerbaijan is one of the countries actively participating in the fight against cybercrime. The country also organizes and participates in the Internet Governance Forum (IGF), and is an annual host of the Regional Internet Governance Forum (RIGF).
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