Cybersecurity and Cybercrime Overview

Introduction

• Speaker: Jenny Martin, Director of Cybersecurity Investigations at Symantec
• Cybercrime impacts society on personal, financial, and national security levels.
• Examples of cybercrime effects:
  • Hundreds of millions of credit card numbers stolen.
  • Tens of millions of social security numbers and health care records compromised.
  • Hacking of nuclear centrifuges and hijacking of unmanned aerial drones.

Profile of Cybercriminals

• Cybercriminals have varied profiles and motivations.
  • Could be international terrorists or teenagers.
• Countries have cyber armies alongside traditional armies.
• Potential for future wars to be fought with computers affecting infrastructure like water supplies and energy grids.

Insights from Google

• Speaker: Parisa, Google's "Security Princess"
• Focus on making software secure at Google.

Mechanics of Cybercrime

Software Viruses

• Comparison to biological viruses: Infect cells and replicate.
• Computer viruses:
  • Executable programs that harm computers.
  • Spread unintentionally and can infect other computers.
  • Methods of infection:
    • Deceptive installation (e.g., disguised as security updates).
    • Exploiting software vulnerabilities.
  • Potential actions:
    • Steal or delete files.
    • Control other programs or remote access.

Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS)

• Hackers use viruses to create botnets (digital armies).
• Overwhelm websites with excessive requests (DDoS attack).
• Even well-prepared sites can be overwhelmed with billions/trillions of requests.

Phishing Scams

• Sending spam emails to steal personal information.
• Fake emails lead to counterfeit websites.
• Tricking users to input login credentials.
• Hackers use this information to access real accounts.

Cybersecurity Measures

• Many entities (companies, laws, government) are working to improve internet safety.
• Most system hacks are due to human mistakes, not security bugs.

Personal Responsibility and Security

• Individual actions can affect the security of personal and organizational data.
• Cybercriminals evolve, requiring continuous vigilance and adaptation from everyone.