Every month, we dig through cybersecurity trends and advice for our readers. This edition: GDPR+1, the cost of cybercrime revealed, and a ransomware racket.

If you notice this notice…

If year one of GDPR has taught us anything, it’s that we can expect more data breach reports, which means more notifications. Most national supervisory authorities saw an increase in queries and complaints compared to 2017, the European Data Protection Board found.

But are companies following through with breach notifications that are effective, and easy to understand? Possibly not. Researchers from the University of Michigan analysed 161 sample notifications using readability guidelines, and found confusing language that doesn’t clarify whether consumers’ private data is at risk.

The researchers had previously found that people often don’t take action after being informed of a data breach. Their new findings suggest a possible connection with poorly worded notifications. That’s why the report recommends three steps for creating more usable and informative breach notifications.

  • Pay more attention to visual attractiveness (headings, lists and text formatting) and visually highlight key information.
  • Make the notice readable and understandable to everyone by using short sentences, common words (and very little jargon), and by not including unnecessary information.
  • Avoid hedge terms and wording claims like “there is no evidence of misuse”, because consumers could misinterpret this as as evidence of absence of risk).

AT&T inadvertently gave an insight into its own communications process after mistakenly publishing a data breach notice recently. Vice Motherboard picked up the story, and pointed out that its actions would have alarmed some users. But it also reckoned AT&T deserves praise for having a placeholder page ready in case of a real breach. Hear, hear. At BH Consulting, we’re big advocates of advance planning for potential incidents.

The cost of cybercrime, updated

Around half of all property crime is now online, when measured by volume and value. That’s the key takeaway from a new academic paper on the cost of cybercrime. A team of nine researchers from Europe and the USA originally published work on this field in 2012 and wanted to evaluate what’s changed. Since then, consumers have moved en masse to smartphones over PCs, but the pattern of cybercrime is much the same.

The body of the report looks at what’s known about the various types of crime and what’s changed since 2012. It covers online card frauds, ransomware and cryptocrime, fake antivirus and tech support scams, business email compromise, telecoms fraud along with other related crimes. Some of these crimes have become more prominent, and there’s also been fallout from cyberweapons like the NotPetya worm. It’s not all bad news: crimes that infringe intellectual property are down since 2012.

Ross Anderson, professor of security engineering at Cambridge University and a contributor to the research, has written a short summary. The full 32-page study is free to download as a PDF here.

Meanwhile, one expert has estimated fraud and cybercrime costs Irish businesses and the State a staggering €3.5bn per year. Dermot Shea, chief of detectives with the NYPD, said the law is often behind criminals. His sentiments match those of the researchers above. They concluded: “The core problem is that many cybercriminals operate with near-complete impunity… we should certainly spend an awful lot more on catching and punishing the perpetrators.” Speaking of which, Europol released an infographic showing how the GozNym criminal network operated, following the arrest of 10 people connected with the gang.

Ransom-go-round

Any ransomware victim will know that their options are limited: restore inaccessible data from backups (assuming they exist), or grudgingly pay the criminals because they need that data badly. The perpetrators often impose time limits to amp up the psychological squeeze, making marks feel like they have no other choice.

Enter third-party companies that claim to recover data on victims’ behalf. Could be a pricey but risk-free option? It turns out, maybe not. If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. And that’s just what some top-quality sleuthing by ProPublica unearthed. It found two companies that just paid the ransom and pocketed the profit, without telling law enforcement or their customers.

This is important because ransomware is showing no signs of stopping. Fortinet’s latest Q1 2019 global threat report said these types of attacks are becoming targeted. Criminals are customising some variants to go after high-value targets and to gain privileged access to the network. Figures from Microsoft suggest ransomware infection levels in Ireland dropped by 60 per cent. Our own Brian Honan cautioned that last year’s figures might look good just because 2017 was a blockbuster year that featured WannaCry and NotPetya.

Links we liked

Finally, here are some cybersecurity stories, articles, think pieces and research we enjoyed reading over the past month.

If you confuse them, you lose them: a post about clear security communication. MORE

This detailed Wired report suggests Bluetooth’s complexity is making it hard to secure. MORE

Got an idea for a cybersecurity company? ENISA has published expert help for startups. MORE

A cybersecurity apprenticeship aims to provide a talent pipeline for employers. MORE

Remember the Mirai botnet malware for DDoS attacks? There’s a new variant in town. MORE

The hacker and pentester Tinker shares his experience in a revealing interview. MORE

So it turns out most hackers for hire are just scammers. MORE

The cybersecurity landscape and the role of the military. MORE

What are you doing this afternoon? Just deleting my private information from the web. MORE

About the Author: admin

Let’s Talk

Please leave your contact details and a member of our team will be in touch shortly.

"*" indicates required fields

Name*