Kaspersky: there are no distances in cyberspace

Kaspersky: there are no distances in cyberspace

PanARMENIAN.Net - The distinction between real-world crime and cybercrime is becoming increasingly blurred. In the past, thieves, robbers and fraudsters would rely on knives and guns to get the job done; today they are more likely to use phishing scams, denial-of-service attacks and Trojans, The Telegraph says.

Traditionally, the purpose of these cyber attacks has been either to steal data, which can be sold on the dark web for financial gain, to steal money directly, or to sabotage the computer systems of a company or organization in the pursuit of some political, social or moral cause.

However, a new and far more dangerous type of cybercrime is emerging – the use of carefully targeted malware to support traditional crime.

According to Eugene Kaspersky, founder of Russian multi-national computer security company Kaspersky Lab, criminals are already using cyber attack tools to carry out theft and commit fraud in the real world.

In an interview with The Telegraph, he described how a Latin American drug cartel had hacked the SCADA computer system running Antwerp's shipping port, so they could unload containers full of cocaine under the noses of customs officials.

The use of cyber attack tools to support traditional crime is a growing trend, said Kaspersky, and there are already examples of cyber attacks resulting in loss of life.

In August 2008, for example, Spanair Flight 5022 crashed just after take off from Barajas Airport, killing over 150 people. An internal report revealed that its central computer system was infected with malware, which may have prevented the detection of technical problems with the aircraft, The Telegraph reminds.

The most concerning example to date of a cyber attack with real-world consequences was the Stuxnet virus, which infected Iran's uranium enrichment facility at Natanz in 2009 and 2010, destroying roughly a fifth of Iran’s nuclear centrifuges by causing them to spin out of control.

Although no one was killed in the Stuxnet attack, it showed the potential havoc that a cyber attack on physical critical infrastructure could wreak. Some alleged that the U.S. government was behind the attack, describing it as the "world's first cyberweapon".

"This is not science fiction, it’s not a scenario we are waiting for, it’s already happened," said Kaspersky. "It’s a really scary thing because these systems are everywhere – all the world is managed by computer systems, from elevators to power grids to water pumps to cars."

A recent study by Kaspersky Lab revealed that two-thirds of adults are unaware that cyber criminals could use malware to take over their mobile device camera to steal private, stored images, and even take some compromising photographs of their own.

“Espionage tools are very close to cyber weapons. In the physical world there is a big distance between the button and the bomb, but in cyberspace there are no distances,” he said, according to The Telegraph.

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