The new Internet Organised Crime Threat Assessment (IOCTA) 2019
Europol´s annually published IOCTA report has been released on 09 October 2019.
Europol´s report focuses on the cybercrime threat landscape, highlights the key developments, threats and trends, as seen by law enforcement authorities across Europe.
The report can be downloaded from Europol´s website, which also provides the IOCTA reports of previous years as well as report and resources to related topics:
The report is structured into 9 topics:
- 1 Key findings: Overview of the main cyber-crime developments in 2019 (pp. 8-9)
- 2 Recommendations: EUROPOL´s recommendations regarding the key findings (pp. 10-12)
- 3 Introduction: Short overview of the method, aim and scope of the report (pp. 13)
- 4 cyber-dependent crime: Detailed overview of trends in cyber-dependent crime (pp. 14-28)
- 5 child sexual exploitation online: Detailed Overview of trends in CSE and their online dimension (pp. 29-34)
- 6 payment fraud: Detailed overview of trends in payment fraud (pp. 35-42)
- 7 the criminal abuse of the dark web: Analysis of current activities in the dark web (pp. 43-46)
- 8 the convergence of cyber and terrorism: Analysis of the cyber dimension of terrorism (pp. 47-49)
- 9 cross cutting crime factors: Analysis of factors which impact and facilitate multiple crime areas (pp. 50-59)
Key findings
Cyber-Dependent crime:
- Data remains the key target, commodity and enabler for cybercrime;
- Phishing and vulnerable remote desktop protocols (RDPs) are the key primary malware infection vectors;
- Concern within organisations over attacks of sabotage, following increase of destructive ransomware;
- Ransomware remains top threat but overall volume has declined as attackers focus on fewer but more profitable targets and create greater economic damage.
Child sexual exploitation online (CSE):
- Amount of CESM detected online continues to increases;
- Modus operandi of online solicitation of children for sexual purposes remains largely unchanged;
- SEGM becomes increasingly common;
- Commercial CSE remains limited, live distant child abuse is a notable exception.
Payment Fraud:
- Card-not-present (CNP) fraud continues to be main priority within payment fraud and facilitator for other illegal activities;
- Skimming continues to adapt to new security measures;
- Jackpotting attacks are becoming more accessible and successful.
The criminal abuse of the dark web:
- The dark web remains the key enabler for online trade in criminal products;
- Recent DDoS attacks and LEA actions created distrust in onion router (TOR) environment, leading to slow exploration of alternative platforms;
- Organised crime groups have begun to fragment their criminal online activities, which in general have become more focused and fragmented;
- Encrypted communication applications are becoming increasingly integrated into criminal trading activities.
The convergence of cyber and terrorism:
- Terror groups are often early adopters of new technologies;
- terrorists attacks increasingly develop online dimension, facilitated by sympathetic online communities;
- a wide array of online service providers is exploited by terrorist groups.
Cross-cutting crime factors:
- Phishing remains important tool for cyber-dependent crime and non-cash payment fraud;
- cryptocurrencies continue to facilitate cybercrime but has also become the target of it.
Methodology
The report draws from contributions of Europol´s 26 Member States and European third-party members, the European Union Cybercrime Taskforce, Eurojust, Europol’s Analysis Projects Cyborg, Dark Web, Terminal, Twins and the Cyber Intelligence Team of Europol’s European Cybercrime Centre (EC3) supported by Europol´s own research and findings in addition to private sector contributions.
Note: This article is based on Europol´s 2019 IOCTA report.
Author: Niklas Hamann
Quellen
Europol (2019). Internet organised crime threat assessment Verfügbar unter: file:///C:/Users/SYNYO/Downloads/iocta_2019%20(3).pdf
Keywords
cyber-crime; cyber-terrorism; Europol;