BotNet News

Cybercrime is any illegal activity committed through computers and networks, such as hacking or ransomware. Whether it’s data breaches, phishing attacks, DDoS or other malware, the global impact of cyber crime is massive and ever-increasing. It affects everyone from individual consumers to small businesses, to multinational firms and even critical infrastructure. Cyber threats are rapidly evolving – and criminals are becoming more agile and organized. They’re exploiting new technologies, tailoring their attacks and taking advantage of digital infrastructure that knows no borders.

A growing range of traditional crimes have a cyber component, including narcotics, weapons and human trafficking; counterfeit identification documents; fraud and identity theft; export-controlled goods and intellectual property; criminal money laundering; sexual exploitation of children and more. In fact, there is a cyber component to virtually every investigation HSI conducts.

The most common ways to become a victim of cybercrime include opening email attachments, clicking on links in spam messages or visiting unfamiliar websites. You should never do these things. Use a reputable password manager to create strong, unique passwords and store them safely. You should also avoid public WiFi and only download apps from trusted sources.

Some cyberattacks are more destructive than others. Distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks, for example, overwhelm a system or network with traffic to make it unusable. Zero-day attacks occur when a vulnerability is disclosed before a patch is available, leaving systems open to attack. To reduce the risk of these and other types of attacks, consider security measures like network segmentation.