Eight scam calls every SECOND as hackers run riot
CYBERCRIME is a threat running much deeper than the recent attack on TalkTalk, and people should prepare for further fallouts, according to specialists in this field. The Mail on Sunday examines the rising risk posed to individuals and explains how to shield your finances from fraud.
NOBODY is safe from fraud. That is the view of top online security experts doing battle in the new era of internet crime.
Last month’s hack attack on phone and broadband company TalkTalk is just one victory for criminals wreaking havoc in a ‘cyber war’ that started long before most people became aware of it. And security specialists say more is to come.
The war is being waged primarily by Russian and Eastern European gangs and is resulting in the personal details of ordinary people in the UK and around the world being traded in the recesses of the inter- net known as the ‘dark web’. This is the term used to describe a collection of hidden and anonymously-run websites populated by both financial criminals and terrorists.
People’s personal data is traded for anywhere between £10 and £6,500, depending on the level of financial detail offered.
Former MI6 intelligence officer Stuart Poole-Robb, who is now chief executive of internet security company KCS Group, warns that information technology weaknesses at major British banks and many blue chip companies make them ‘easy prey’ and are putting customers at increasing risk.
He says: ‘All the banks are being hit on a daily basis by hackers. None will admit to these attacks for fear of reputational damage and loss of customer and investor confidence.
‘The truth is that cyber criminals are way ahead of the banks in terms of technical sophistication. Banks in the UK have been slow to adopt best practice, with some relying on software already 15 years out of date.’
The KCS group is also aware of one bank operating in the UK that still runs on the outdated Windows 2000 operating system, which is ‘impossible to secure effectively’.
Vulnerable IT systems allow hackers to reap information and sell it on the ‘dark web’. Buyers use the information to steal from a person’s account, or to trick a victim into giving any missing details needed to access it.
The crime is mushrooming. Research by the Governmentbacked Money Advice Service estimates there are now eight scam
All the banks are being hit on a daily basis… The truth is the cyber criminals are way ahead of them Former MI6 intelligence officer Stuart Poole-Robb, now an internet security boss
calls per second made to people in the UK. A conservative estimate by the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau indicates more than £268million was lost by the public to online scams in the 12 months to the end of August.
But it is not a problem confined to customers of internet banking.
All customer details are now held on databases that can be accessed by criminals with the right software and knowhow. Sarah Stephens, cyber expert at glo- bal insurance broker JLT Specialty, says: ‘It’s hard for a consumer to know all the parties that their data might have been shared with – it’s not just sitting with the company you have the relationship with.
‘Before you know it your data has been around the world and in more people’s hands than you can imagine. Alarming, yes. Worrying, yes.’
All criminals really need is to be keen, because the booming economy operating in the shadows of the internet has become so organ- ised that ‘hacker hotlines’ have emerged – allowing criminals to assist eager apprentices who have limited computer skills.
The software needed for a ‘prolonged and sustained attack’ on an organisation can now be rented for the same cost as a return flight across the Atlantic – about £350.
Despite the heightened threat of fraud, there are no guarantees that victims at the end of the chain will be refunded.
As a rule of thumb, if money is stolen from your account without your knowledge you will be refunded by your bank.
But if you inadvertently handed over any details such as a PIN or password or transferred cash to a criminal, regardless of who they claimed to work for or how credible they sounded, you are likely to be held responsible.
Stephens adds: ‘Consumers must be more vigilant than ever.’