Assignment 2 and 5 are down below to help you with this particular assignment.
CYBERCRIME: A CYBER-ATTACK SIMILAR TO BANGLADESH’S CENTRAL BANK HITS A SECOND BANK
The modern days are characterized by the hi-tech thefts referred to as cyber crimes. These crimes have been on the rise in the recent time especially due to the availability of both Big Data and advanced computing architectures. Big Data is similar to small data online that it is bigger and is characterized by its volume, velocity, and variety. Criminals tap into the high volumes of Big Data that are generated today by companies to carry out various thefts. Additionally, the hi-tech computing architectures coupled with the good programming knowledge and skills enable hackers to penetrate the security systems of companies (Putte, 2013). The infiltration of the security systems results in theft of data, money and other private resources. Therefore, these crimes possess a great danger to operations of businesses especially with the projected losses arising from cyber-attacks set to hit $2 trillion in the near future.
An instance of the recent cyber crime attack has been carried out on an unnamed Asian bank and is reported to being similar to the Bangladesh’s central bank cyber theft in terms of tools and techniques used. The financial institutions have been at the center stage of cyber thefts as criminals do not necessarily need to physically steal from the bank but they use some complicated and sophisticated computing platforms (Khandelwal, 2016). The warning of the cyber-attack on the said bank was reported by the SWIFT Company which oversees monetary transfers from one bank account to another. This company facilitates money transfers in over eleven thousand financial institutions and so it is partly mandated with ensuring the safety of the banks’ security system. However, SWIFT did not reveal the amount of money stolen.
Just like in the Bangladesh’s central bank cyber theft, the cyber criminals have made use of the sophisticated operation controls of the bank that are known only to the insiders. As such, Swift has reported that the criminals could have gotten a helping hand from malicious inside employees to carry out the crime. The theft was conducted through the penetration of the software that supports the money transfer. Usually, any money transfer is accompanied by messages/statements that give details of the transaction from one bank account to another. So the cyber criminals infiltrated the money transfer software and faked the transaction statements hence making it possible for money to be transferred between accounts (Khandelwal, 2016). In the Bangladesh bank, the target was $1 billion although only $81 million was stolen after the criminals made a spelling mistake. No much details of the second attack were provided by Swift but supposes that the criminals learnt from the error of the Bangladesh bank theft then a lot of money is projected to have been stolen in this second bank.
References
Khandelwal, S. (2016, May 13). Second bank cyber-attack detected by Swift after Bangladesh raid. Retrieved from BBC: http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-36284446
Putte, D. (2013). Cyber crime: Can a standard risk analysis help in the challenges facing business continuity managers? Journal Of Business Continuity & Emergency Planning, 7(2), 126-137.
Assignment 5
METHODS TO STOP DIFFERENT CYBER CRIMES
Cybercrimes are conducted by criminals who infiltrate the security systems of organizations and steal money, data, and other resources. A noted characteristic of cybercrimes is that a large part of these crimes are conducted by computing architectures i.e. hackers use sophisticated and complex computing platforms to penetrate the security systems (Tripwire, 2014). Therefore, the prevention methods of these crimes involve making sure that the firewall and the software of the security system are not breached. Additionally, preventing phishing scams and email spams play an important role in preventing cyber crimes.
To prevent hackers infiltrating the security system of an organization, the firewall should be used. A firewall is simply a set of related software that monitors the activities of a private network hence controlling the kind of information that goes in and out of the network. A firewall prevents the resources of the private network from access by other external networks i.e. it prevents unauthorized access requests (Owuor, 2014). As such, a firewall prevents the hackers from accessing the security systems of the organizations hence preventing cyber crimes. Therefore, it is essential that all firms that do not have the firewall in their security systems to take this measure. The stealing of money from the Bangladesh Central Bank in February 2016 was attributed to the lack of firewall system. The bank responded by installing a firewall and using second-hand internet routers that have since improved the security of the bank against external infiltration.
Secondly, the organizations should ensure that they update the software of their security systems. The field of information technology changes so rapidly such that a new technology might become obsolete after only a year. This implies that even the cyber criminals are always coming up with new sophisticated and complicated ways to commit crimes (Owuor, 2014). Therefore, organizations should take a measure of keeping abreast of these changes through updating the software of their security systems. By so doing, hackers may not be able to penetrate the security systems even with the latest hacking applications.
Today, phishing scams have become so rife on the internet. These are emails that are disguised as if they are official emails from genuine websites requiring the recipient to urgently send some sensitive information. These scams usually instruct the receiver to log in to their account and they contain logos and official language as if they were from legitimate websites. Cyber crimes can be prevented by not responding to these phishing scams. Both phishing and spams are mitigated by the provision of blacklist services in email providers.
References
Owuor, H. (2014, June 11). Top 8 tips to prevent cybercrime. Retrieved from IT News Africa: http://www.itnewsafrica.com/2014/06/top-8-tips-to-prevent-cybercrime/
Tripwire, G. (2014, November 4). Preventing and Recovering from Cybercrime. Retrieved from The State of Security: http://www.tripwire.com/state-of-security/incident-detection/preventing-and-recovering-from-cybercrime/
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