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Criminals are becoming increasingly sophisticated in cybercrime, and pornography scams have been on the rise in the coronation era.
DNB is publishing a recent report on the threat posed by criminal actors. Security experts at the big bank have rated threats at various levels for internal use, threats directed at consumers and the financial sector.
DNB chief security officer Lars Eirik Berg tells Nettavisen Økonomi that the digital threat has increased, especially investment fraud, but also advanced fraud against companies.
– In general, it has become a more complex and complex image, and the most professional players do not have a single domain. They find the path of least resistance, where humans become the weakest link, says the director of security.
According to Berg, the fraud side represents a great threat, something to which we will return. Criminals are turning and finding new opportunities, especially now during the crown eruption and the chaos that has arisen.
Also read: this is why the media cannot stop celebrity fraud
resurgence
And then it has become a revival of an old scam, porn scam. The typical scam here occurs by scammers in an email writing that they are sitting in a video or images of the victim while he or she is viewing pornography. If the victims do not pay a certain amount, the scammers threaten to publish the images.
– Yes, porn fraud is a well-known fraud method and a classic fraud format that has reappeared, and where we see an increase. DNB has several employees who have received such email. Porn scams play around with people’s fear of something, and scammers try to exploit those who don’t have as much technical knowledge, Berg says.
WARNING AGAINST PORN SCAM: Security Director Lars Eirik Berg at DNB
Photo: Private
– Criminals find weaknesses, especially now that many people work from a home office. It causes a little extra panic.
Berg says the porn scam has several variations. The main rule is that criminals say they hacked into the PC and gained control of the camera and thus of the content on the individual’s screen.
Recipe
– This is not a real threat, but again, criminals play on fear and uncertainty, and some choose to pay. They have to spend a few thousand dollars, especially bitcoins or dollars. It always comes with a recipe on how to pay in bitcoin, says the security director.
– What do you advise those who are exposed to this threat?
– They should go to the police if there is a serious threat. But very often you can find similar attempts with a simple online search.
Berg says criminals often go far. Therefore, one can find someone who has asked the question openly and get good help in dealing with the content of such ads.
– These scams are nasty, but an example of classic fraud where one manages victims in some way and plays on ignorance and fear.
Also read: New Threat Assessment: Warns Against Crown Scammers Exploiting Individuals
Explosion
Last year, the DNB Financial Cyber Crime Center discovered more than 4,000 cases. Most of these cases were attempts at fraud against clients. In March, these fraud cases against DNB clients exploited more than 70 per week, compared to 30 in February. Scammers played on the sharp decline in the stock market this winter.
Berg says criminals are abusing people’s lack of knowledge about bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, and how these markets work. Criminals make customers believe they invest in cryptocurrencies, often through fake websites.
– Criminals have been very active on the investment side towards private clients, and there are all kinds of fraud. But what we have seen is a huge increase in investment fraud. Our clear advice is that if something is too good to be true, it generally is.
False information
Berg says many of DNB’s clients claim they have seen ads with celebrities talking about good investment advice.
He points out that there are large amounts of false information on digital platforms and therefore everyone should consider the message in what they read and not take everything too seriously.
– During the crown crisis, we have seen criminals act with fear, stocks are no longer secure, and it should enter “my extremely secure cryptocurrency,” says Berg. But this is a supposedly safe and often fictional cryptocurrency.
Also read: DNB Warns Against New Fraud Method: Clients Are Being Scammed At Finn.no
Unreadable content
One area where the threat is high and growing is the use of encryption viruses. Criminals use encryption viruses to squeeze companies for money by encrypting all of the victim’s data.
They then make the content unreadable by using a mathematical code that requires a key to reread the material.
They then demand payment to give the company access to this decryption key. The big company Hydro was hit by such a virus last year and it cost them a lot.
– Hydro came out very open and told what happened. When a rescue virus encrypted their IT systems, it resulted in a loss of production. Large resources contributed to crisis management and recovery, and Hydro suffered a financial loss of more than NOK 650 million. They spent more than six months managing the event, “says Berg.
The surest way to avoid these viruses is to avoid opening suspicious attachments and checking the language of the email. But Berg says that the most advanced criminals have mapped you or your company beforehand, and have become good at Norwegian.
Also read: Attempting to scam school students: computers and offices under attack
Huge hum
– Therefore, we suspect that Norwegian players are doing this. These are large sums in total. And criminal actors not only do one thing, they use simpler forms of crime to finance heavier forms.
– This is one of the reasons why we are becoming more open and we are publishing this report for the first time. The main criminal actors deal with everything from terrorism, human trafficking, child pornography to things we don’t want to hear about. This scam funds extremely heavy crimes, according to DNB’s chief of security.
Previously, we Norwegians could experience texts and conversations in Norwegian poorly translated by Google in broken Norwegian. Private clients are now being called by what Berg believes to be Norwegian-speaking people, Norwegians who have grown up here.
– This professionalization is particularly evident in corporate fraud. In the second half of 2019, we saw entry into a much more advanced group of players that targeted large companies and attacked significantly more, Berg says.
Criminals use compromised email, where they have taken full control of one or more email accounts, in combination with advanced manipulation are key prerequisites for success.
Never personal data
– In good Norwegian, scammers pretend to be from DNB’s security department. We also call individuals, but we will never request personal information over the phone. There has been a trend since the last half of last year: Callers to scam bank identification data and other personal information over the phone speak Norwegian.
– So it doesn’t help to have a good antivirus on your local PC when it provides personal information, possibly a completely normal email, as long as it is manipulated to believe that this is real, Berg warns.
Then we have the so-called love scams. Berg says they are still there, but to a lesser extent. DNB knows that love fraud is not only used by scammers as a source of income, but also as a way to obtain accounts that they can use in a money laundering process, the so-called mule accounts.
– Love scams are relatively easy to carry out, and we believe they will pose a similar threat in 2020 as in 2019. Such a scam could start with a widow contacted on Facebook or another online meeting site by someone pretending to be a widower, Berg says.
Long distance
They then develop a long-distance girlfriend relationship, but after a year, she can be told that the man’s car has broken down. Then he asks the widow for financial help to fix it.
– You may have helped with awareness campaigns about these scams, but on the other hand, criminals have turned around and pursued other purposes, such as classic love scams.
– Scam artists use Norwegian mules, and physical contact probably takes place with the middleman. Scammers want to build trust, so physical threats are very rare. Instead, it’s about manipulating and making him transfer money, Berg says of the procedure.
DNB experienced last year that several great players threw leaked information on the Internet. In November 2019, for example, a collection of 1.2 billion lines of personal information was found on a non-secure server on the Internet.
Of this information, there were 5,673 DNB emails. We are talking about the theft of databases.
The new gold
– Information is the new gold and there is a large-scale buying and selling of this information, says Berg. DNB also experiences some outstanding clients who threaten employees.
– Unfortunately, violence has also been committed against our employees. Not many employees are concerned, but it has happened.
The chief of security says that most threats occur by mail or phone. As Norway is by far the largest bank, DNB has a very large customer base. Therefore, employees experience many different situations.
– In many cases, it is about personal tragedies of clients and the life situation in which they ended. The bank becomes the first point of frustration and contact.
– In summary, what is your conclusion?
– Criminals use all methods to reach the target. It applies to everything from phone calls, emails to classic hacking. Very, very often, criminals play with what they know about us and with what we know we fear or want the most, says Berg.
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