Fighting Cyber Crime: New Approach Described by FBI

March 6, 2020

DarkCyber noted a report from ABC News called “FBI Working to ‘Burn Down’ Cyber Criminals’ Infrastructure.” The report states that “law enforcement agents are working to take out the tools that allow increasingly dangerous cyber criminals to carry out their devastating attacks.”

Some factoids appeared in the write up:

  • A 40 percent increase in ransomware attacks between 2018 and 2019
  • Ransomware has emerged as a major bad actor method
  • Foreign actors are using cyber attacks to steal information from certain vendors in the US.

As DarkCyber points out in the forthcoming March 10, 2020, video program many of the hacker tools are available as open source software. Programming languages widely taught in schools and online courses provide the equivalent of a tabula rasa for bad actors. An often overlooked source of “how to” information are instructional information, code snippets, and technical road maps distributed via online discussion groups. Dark Web resources exist, but there are bad actors advertising their software and expertise available via a standard Web browser. Will the infrastructure focus result in stepped up investigations of hosting providers?

This new approach illustrates a shift in response to the escalating risks associated with online connectivity.

Stephen E Arnold, March 6, 2020

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