Riding the Next Wave of Cyber Crime

February 5, 2015

[gtxvideo vid=”aYXrUQEE” playlist=”” pid=”Bbt3TRDe” thumb=”http://player.gtxcel.com/thumbs/aYXrUQEE.jpg” vtitle=”10PM-CyberCrime 2/4”]

CHARLOTTE, NC — We all love our smart phones and tablets, and all the apps that come with. But social media may be the new frontier for cyber crime. Hackers are adapting old tricks to new tech, and they’re ripping off people’s personal information.

“Everybody’s being attacked, each and every day,” says Tom Bartholomy, President and CEO with the Better Business Bureau. “And sometimes they get through.”

Cybercrime is a growth industry. The likely annual cost to the global economy is more than $400 billion.

Charlotte-based international security expert Karl de la Guerra says cyber crime is becoming more sophisticated, and it’s getting more difficult to track the location of these attacks.

“You’re not looking for the physical body lurking around the streets of Charlotte,” says de la Guerra. “You’re looking for the individual that has access to code, halfway across the world.”

The borderless nature of the internet, and the way we use new technologies, is opening new avenues for cyber criminals. As companies add layers of security, hackers are responding by moving to the path of least resistance.

“Cyber crime, for the criminal, is limited only by their imagination,” says de la Guerra. “So you can imagine how difficult it is for the government and private sector to have to keep up with that.”

Many security experts believe the next wave of hacking will be carried out on social media. Facebook, Linkedin and Twitter are everywhere. We are all walking around constantly connected.”

The risk posed by social media has increased dramatically, with criminals looking to use it for monetary gain.

Phishing attacks are evolving, moving further away from email and into the social media landscape. But the same techniques apply.

Fake offers: asking users to share credentials.

“Likejacking”: fake “like” buttons that install malware to gain access to your computer.

Fake plug-ins: tricking you into downloading bogus internet extensions.

Fake apps: that look like something to use with a social network, but are used instead to steal access credentials… and your sensitive information.

“The things that you’ve locked down under your privacy settings,” says cyber security expert Theresa Payton. “So they pictures, the photos, the posts about where you are, where you’re going. And they’re able to use that to socially engineer you.”

Payton says the goal is to get your banking information, social security number, medical records.

“The other thing that they love to get their hands on are your email addresses,” says Payton. “Because they know those email addresses are going to be tied to social media accounts, bank accounts and credit cards.”

What can you do to protect yourself when your phone, tablet and computer hold so much valuable information? Is it worth it to invest hundreds of dollars a year in an identity protection service?

Experts say that all depends on you.

“Anything that you can get linked up with that’s going to do a routine monitoring of your account, any type of fraud alert, this sort of thing, is a good thing to be with,” says de la Guerra.

“Once you understand what you have available to you, and what you can and can’t do compared to what they can do, a lot of people are just saying hey, I’ll take this on myself,” says Bartholomy.

Identity theft continues to top the Federal Trade Commission’s national ranking of consumer complaints. The highest reported age group for identity theft is 20-29, which is also the most active on social media.