Ransomware, e-mail scams rise worldwide

Myla Pilao, director for technology marketing at Trend Micro, a provider of security software and solutions, said in an interview that the recent hacks in Thailand on automated teller machines were not new, as these crimes earlier happened in the United States, Europe, Singapore, Malaysia and Taiwan, among other places.
The Thai ATM hackers are believed to be Eastern European cybercriminals who planted malware via USB (universal serial bus) to disable the machines’ security and then withdrew money multiple times in multiple locations in Bangkok and other provinces.
Besides the ATM hacks, Thai consumers are exposed to greater cybersecurity risks while using mobile and Internet banking services or doing e-commerce and other online transactions.
The latest statistics show that the number of mobile and Internet banking accounts in Thailand has approached 30 million nationwide.
Cyberattacks also have come in the form of the theft of personal data to steal money.
Pilao said preventive measures needed to be taken by enterprises, information-technology vendors, ecosystem operators and consumers via educational efforts and proper incidence management.
She said ransomware and BEC scams had emerged as new threats, with Thailand among the world’s top 50 countries with significant exposure to such risks.
These scams involve multiple players, including banks and third-party enterprises, using spear flishing, social engineering and other methods to trick people into wiring money to the wrong persons based on the wrong invoices created by cybercriminal groups.
A recent Trend Micro report titled: “The Reign of Ransomware” analyses the trends in attacks and vulnerabilities around the world. It says BEC scams led to an estimated loss of US$3 billion (Bt105 billion) in the first half of this year, mainly in the US, which is currently the biggest target for these scams.
Raimund Genes, chief technology officer of Trend Micro, said businesses had to adopt multi-layered security solutions to fight the new threats as cybercriminals attempted to break into corporate IT networks.
Trend Micro reported that n the first half of this year, incidents of ransomware jumped 172 per cent worldwide compared with the same period last year, while BEC scams have spread around the world. The US Federal Bureau of Investigation has reported more than 22,000 victims during this period.
Overall, 79 new ransomware families were found in the first half of this year, topping the number for the whole of 2015, with BEC scams originated from e-mails 58 per cent of the time.
Pilao said some BEC scams involved enterprises that are traders of raw materials in China, and in some cases scare tactics were used to extort money.
In the first half of this year, Trend Micro found 473 vulnerabilities from several products, such as Adobe Flash and Advantech’s Web Access.
Ed Cabrera, chief cybersecurity officer at Trend Micro, said cybercriminals were resilient and flexible when it came to altering their attack methods, so the security threats kept changing, often as soon as solutions were provided.