“The pandemic has undeniably accelerated the pace of digitalisation around the world, taking the importance of cybersecurity and privacy protection to a whole new level. Compared to the previous year, the number of cybercrimes worldwide has increased fivefold in 2020. ” This is reported by Huawei after the GSMA Congress of the International Association of Mobile Operators in Shanghai. Of course, such a statement and the China Cooperation and Confidence in the Single Cyberspace are part of Huawei’s publicity strategy following the espionage scandal in the United States, which almost deprived the company of the opportunity to work and trade in the European Union. However, this does not detract from the problem raised by Huawei:
“2020. The year 2006 has significantly changed the way businesses operate and everyone’s daily lives by moving jobs, training and various services, including medical services, online. During social distance, smart devices are used much more often than before to communicate with friends, relatives and colleagues. Similarly, the data and information we share on the Internet has become more sensitive. All of the above has not only increased the load on mobile networks, but also the activity of cybercriminals, creating new cyber security challenges. ”
Neither happy nor rich
Latvian security authorities are also reporting more and more cases of fraud, and it is not just fictitious online stores that promise to deliver a refrigerator, but will appropriate money instead. The financial pyramids of the 1990s are now in vogue. Only they are built on the Internet, where fraudsters can act even more brazenly than they once did in the physical world. Also because young people are fed the absurd idea that virtual means of payment are the equivalent of money and can be happy and rich by speculating on them. But nothing. If you are not a scammer, you will simply lose money. And they will no longer be some bitcoins with inflated value or non-existent corporate shares, but the euro.
The Cybercrime Unit of the State Police has issued a warning about the growing risks of fraud. Currently, an international group of cyber fraudsters is active in Latvia and neighboring countries. Speaks Russian. Offer their victims to invest money in questionable virtual internet platforms. The Latvian police, in co-operation with the European Police Office, has identified potential victims – at least 1,500 Internet users to whom fraudulent offers have been sent by e-mail. Many have responded and fallen. The police will soon instruct the victims on what to do next.
However, it is clear that it is almost impossible to recover money lost in the virtual environment from unknown persons.
Fraud scheme
How does this fraud really happen and how can it be avoided? The first advice from the police is to be careful immediately when receiving phone calls from strangers who pretend to be financial brokers or financial professionals. Fraudsters call not only from local, but also from foreign numbers registered in Estonia, Portugal, Italy, Austria, France, Belgium, England, Germany, Romania, the Netherlands. They claim to be erudite “financial professionals”, offering assistance in the investment process. If the victim gets caught, he is convinced to start investing in various Internet platforms not registered in Latvia. Their names and technological solutions give the impression of real financial performance, so that the potential victim has the illusion that his investment is profitable and everything is going exactly as promised by “financial specialists”. But what is really happening is fiction.
And then the pumping of money from the victims begins – both through remotely installed programs and quite simply by using the naivety of the victims. Requires more and more new transfers to the specified accounts for the purchase of such or such shares and virtual currencies, sends reports on non-existent income and value fluctuations.
The worst thing is that victims are often persuaded to borrow the maximum amounts from fast credit companies.
And it’s real money with huge interest that makes people in debt for a long time. Including depriving them of property and families. This criminal scheme is by no means the only one that circulates in the cyber environment and threatens the population.
The shadow side of digitization
In February, the Internet security institution CERT reported 10,000 Latvian Internet users whose data has been leaked to the Internet. Data from users’ computers has been stolen as a result of an Emotet virus infection. The stolen data contains usernames and passwords used to access various services and websites. It is also known that some e-mail was stolen from users who had Outlook Mail installed on their computer. Stolen correspondence, especially if it contains private or confidential business information, can serve as an object of extortion.
Fraudsters also steal payment card data. At the end of January, fraudsters approached traders who had placed their goods for sale on various internet trading platforms on behalf of several suppliers known in Latvia. They pretended to be buyers and sent links to fake websites that visually resemble the websites of the original courier services, asking them to enter payment card details to receive payment for the product remotely. Less experienced merchants caught on and fraudsters had access to personal payment card data and account money.
Cyber-weather reports also report infected e-mails on behalf of banks, intrusions into servers and encrypted data – probably for extortion purposes, threats to the Internet, such as possible remote attacks by malicious people on smart heating equipment. These are all side effects of the digitalisation of society.
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