Cybercrime is on the rise around the world especially during the summer months where attacks are more prevalent as cybercriminals take advantage of the rise in demand for travel. The number of digital attacks are on a rise as online transactions continue to soar.
“It’s more of cybercriminals exploiting human behaviour than anything else in particular. For example, cybercriminals know that people, especially parents, will plan holidays during the summer season because of the school break. In such scenarios, it is normal for people to look for enticing holiday destinations on travel websites, and compare airline ticket and accommodation deals,” Maher Yamout, Senior Security Researcher at Kaspersky, said in an exclusive interview with Arabian Business.
The observed increased travel trend by cybercriminals led to the creation of fake holiday packages to target vulnerable victims. According to Kaspersky, there have also been instances of cybercriminals posing as travel and reservation agents and “exploiting human emotions such as fear and greed.”
Rise of the use of mobile applications and browsers continues to feed the rise of cybercriminals
The latest LexisNexis Risk Solutions’ annual cybercrime report, titled Trust and Collaboration as Foundations to Fight Fraud reveals two kinds of cyberattacks – human-initiated attacks and automated bot attacks. The attack volume of these stand at a whopping 905 million and 3.5 billion respectively, seeing significant growth in 2022.
In 2022, the number of transactions analysed in the Digital Identity Network reached near 80 billion. The growth in digital transactions, particularly mobile have dominated as consumers explore expanded digital offerings.
The rise of the use of mobile applications and browsers for digital transactions continues to feed the rise of cybercrime, as more vulnerable users emerge on platforms, cybercriminals continue to launch attacks on the digital world.
Global cybercrime damages are predicted to reach $10.5 trillion by 2025, creating a detrimental effect on business revenues and exacerbating operational costs, according to a SABIC official.
One in every eleven new account creations are attacks with over 104 percent year-on-year increase in the rate of login attacks through mobile app channels. Payments, password resets and new account creations are also seeing a growing risk of attacks.
Transactions by channel were revealed to be 77 percent on mobile and a mere 23 percent on desktop, reflecting a seven percent growth year-on-year, according to the LexisNexis Risk Solutions report.
Cybercriminals impersonating banks and official authorities
A common scam method and one observed in the region is cybercriminals impersonating banks and official authorities, urging victims to reveal personal and financial information.
The authorities and banks have increased initiatives to spread awareness about these methods and have urged individuals to verify calls and messages received in order to avoid falling victim to such scams.
When asked about what banks were impersonated by scammers, Yamout said, “It’s not about the banks in this area or another, but more about the scammer. Because almost every bank across the globe must have faced scam-related challenges.”
In the first half of 2023, Kaspersky detected a total of 77,792 cybercrime attacks across banks, payment systems and e-commerce stores in the UAE.
A common trend observed was that during global and regional events, the rate of attacks increase. During the FIFA 2023 World Cup and the earthquake in Turkey, there was a spike in phishing pages. “In a nutshell, scammers will use any trend and any opportunity from celebrations to natural calamities to trick people,” Yamout said.
Recommended measures to protect the potential victims of scams are being circulated by companies and financial institutions detailing basic steps that can be taken to avoid falling victim to cyber scams.
Safety measures include attention to notifications and reminders, verifying the email and address of the sender, looking out for typos and contacting the institution to confirm the request.
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