Firms face targeted bespoke cyber attacks, dark web study reveals

Academic study exposes prolific availability and demand for tailored malware, network access and corporate espionage services, which suggests many firms’ cyber defences are below standard. There has been a 20% rise in the number of dark net listings that have the potential to harm the enterprise since 2016, according to a report of cyber criminal markets on the dark web by Michael McGuire, senior lecturer in criminology at Surrey University. The dark net markets report, which is the third in a series of studies on the cyber criminal Web Of Profit commissioned by virtualisation-based security firm Bromium, was unveiled at Infosecurity Europe 2019 in London, highlighting the risks of relying only on traditional signature-based security technologies. McGuire’s first report into the macro economics of cyber crime revealed that cyber criminal revenues worldwide are at least $1.5tn, and the second report showed that social media-enabled cyber crimes are generating at least $3.25bn a year in global revenue and one in five organisations has been infected with malware distributed via social media.