As we embark on a new year filled with aspirations and plans, it’s crucial to recognize that our actions today shape the landscape of our tomorrows. In this digital age, the battleground between cyber security and the ever-evolving cyber threats is more intense than ever. In this article we go over the basics of cybercrime and how to safeguard our digital future. We put
together interesting facts in the accompanying poster — because being informed is the first line of defense in this interconnected world.
In the simplest of terms, cybercrime is any illegal activity that utilizes computers or the internet. Considering how computers have become interconnected, allowing us to communicate near-instantly across the globe, we are becoming ever more reliant on computers and computer systems in our day to day lives. Just as how we have physical security measures like locks to minimize crime in the real world, we need cybersecurity to minimize crime and harm in the digital world. The scope of cybersecurity evolves as fast as the capabilities of computing. We can think of it as a set of techniques to protect the secrecy, integrity and availability of computer systems and data against threats. But cybercrime is much more in depth than just that. This is due to the many types of cybercrime that currently exist and the frequency with which they occur. With the explosive rise of the internet over the past decades, it is no surprise that cybercrime and cybersecurity services are also on the rise.
Common types of Cybercrime
Cybercrime encompasses a wide range of illegal activities that exploit the internet, computer systems, and networks. These crimes can cause significant financial losses, damage reputations, and violate privacy. Here are the most common types of cybercrime:
Phishing: Phishing is a common cybercrime tactic that involves sending fraudulent emails or text messages that appear to be from legitimate sources, such as banks, online retailers, or credit card companies. The messages often urge recipients to click on a malicious link or attachment, which can lead to the installation of malware, the phishing website stealing sensitive information, or the attacker gaining access to the victim’s account.
Identity Theft: Identity theft is one of the most serious cybercrimes as it involves stealing an individual’s personal information, such as Social Security number, credit card numbers, and driver’s license details. This information can then be used to open fraudulent accounts, make unauthorized purchases, or apply for loans in the victim’s name.
Malware: Malware, short for malicious software, is a type of software designed to harm computer systems or networks. It can be distributed through various means, including phishing emails, malicious websites, or infected files. Common types of malware include viruses, worms, Trojan horses, and ransomware.
Ransomware: Ransomware is a type of malware that encrypts a victim’s files, making them inaccessible until a ransom is paid. Attackers often demand payment in cryptocurrency, making it difficult to track and prosecute them.
Data Theft: Data theft involves stealing sensitive information from organizations or individuals. This information can include financial records, customer data, intellectual property, or confidential business plans. Stolen data can be sold on the dark web or used for blackmail or extortion.
Cyber Espionage: Cyber espionage is the unauthorized access to confidential information of organizations or governments for strategic or financial gain. Attackers often use sophisticated hacking techniques to gain access to networks and steal valuable data.
Denial-of-Service (DoS) Attacks: DoS attacks aim to overwhelm a website or server with excessive traffic, making it unavailable to legitimate users. This can cause financial losses, reputational damage, and disrupt essential services.
Website Defacement: Website defacement involves unauthorized changes to a website’s content, often with the intention of displaying offensive or inflammatory messages. This can damage the reputation of the website owner and cause them financial losses.
Cybercriminals
When you picture a cybercriminal, you probably think of a mysterious, juvenile hooded figure, sitting in their bedroom, looking at green digits falling from the top of the screen as they hack into ‘the mainframe’. In reality, the majority of cybercriminals are highly educated people, often with white collar jobs. Cybercriminals are intuitive psychologists that are adept at manipulating people into feeling safe in order to disclose sensitive information.
Social engineering is a term that is inextricably linked with cybercrime. Social engineering is a psychological strategy to gain people’s trust in order to manipulate their behavior. If you imagine an organization’s security system as a chain, in order for the hackers to break the chain, all they need to do is to break one link. Once this link is broken, the security system is
compromised. An organization’s employees are the links in this chain. People are often the weakest point in any security system.
Steps to prevent cybercrime
In the ever-evolving landscape of cyber threats, safeguarding against identity theft requires a proactive approach. Stay vigilant by regularly monitoring financial statements, fortifying personal information, and employing robust passwords. Exercise caution in online activities, steering clear of dubious URLs, and address suspicious requests by directly contacting companies. On a corporate level, fortify defenses with secure file transfer software and empower employees with knowledge about optimal safety practices. While no system is infallible, adopting preventive measures and vigilant server activity monitoring constitute significant strides toward securing your invaluable information. Stay one step ahead in the digital realm to outsmart potential threats.
Here at Syncplify, we’re all about fighting cybercrime by preventing it. Most tools available on the market focus on detection, which implies the need for remediation, while prevention means that the crime cannot occur in the first place. Of the various categories of cybercrime listed above, our software primarily focuses on preventing:
- Data Theft
- Cyber Espionage
- Denial-of-Service (DoS)
At the same time, the way our software is designed also contributes to ease of remediation, and as a part of a larger strategy to help prevent:
- Identity Theft
- Website Defacement
- Ransomware
Not all SFTP servers are created equal, Syncplify Server! is the only enterprise-grade SFTP server on the market that has never been
hacked since its first release in early 2014 (10 years ago at the time this article is being written). It’s also the only one that has no entry whatsoever in the NIST NVD (National Vulnerability Database), feel free to search the NIST NVD website to confirm our claim, and – for completeness of information — also look up the names of our competitors. Then
determine in which SFTP server’s “hands” you’d like to put the safety of your critical data and information. Simply put, we followed a “secure by design” approach. While some older or buggy client software may not be able to exchange files with our server (though this happens in a negligible number of cases) our number one rule and design guideline has always been that if something can be broken it shouldn’t even be there in the first place. For example, out of the box our SFTP server doesn’t generate an RSA key-pair to be used as host keys, in only generates an ECDSA and an Ed25519 key-pair. You can add an RSA key-pair at a later time if you want to weaken the security of your server, but out of the box our default configuration does not include it. All in all, we have painstakingly selected more than 140 configuration settings to ensure that the default configuration of our software is as hardened and as resilient as possible.
In addition to that, we have implemented the industry’s only combined multi-factor and multi-phase authentication that leverages the benefits of SSH’s built-in multi-phase authentication (including PKI authentication) and those of traditional 2FA tools like Google Authenticator, Microsoft Authenticator, and the like. We prevent data-theft and cyber-espionage by virtually separating all file system access from the software itself by means of dedicated Virtual File System subsystems, with support for local as well as cloud (AWS S3, Azure Blob, Google Object Storage) and even other SFTP
servers located in different isolated networks. Syncplify’s “active-active” high availability (HA) configurations help minimize the risk of Denial-of-Service, while our many automatable backup and restore options help with
remediation and disaster recovery (DR). Last but not least, our flagship, unique and proprietary Protector™ technology constantly monitors what goes on inside and outside our server processes to detect suspicious client
activity as it occurs and prevent it in real time, before it can get through to your data. Data based on anonymous statistics, voluntarily contributed by our customers and users, shows that Protector™ has prevented no less than 700,000,000 (700 million) attacks, while being defeated exactly zero times (never).
In conclusion, Syncplify Server! is the safest SFTP server you could put in front of your data, if the security and safety of such data is important to you. Not to mention that, in certain markets, this may also be required by regulations, including but not limited to:
Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA): HIPAA, applicable to healthcare providers and business associates that handle patient data, requires the implementation of administrative, technical, and physical safeguards to protect patient information. This includes encryption of electronic protected health information (ePHI) during transmission and at rest. HIPAA does not explicitly specify SFTP as
the preferred protocol, but it is widely recognized as a secure and compliant solution for transferring ePHI.
Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS): PCI DSS, an industry standard for protecting cardholder data, mandates the encryption of cardholder data at rest and during transmission. While PCI DSS does not specify SFTP, it is overwhelmingly considered by the vast majority of security experts to be a suitable protocol for encrypting cardholder data during secure file transfers.
General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR): GDPR, applicable to organizations that process the personal data of individuals residing in the European Union, requires the implementation of appropriate technical and organizational measures to ensure the security of personal data. While GDPR does not specify a particular encryption protocol, SFTP is considered a compliant solution for protecting personal data during file transfers.
The Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (GLBA): GLBA, applicable to financial institutions, mandates the protection of “nonpublic personal information” (NPI) of customers and clients. GLBA does not specifically require encryption, but it does require financial institutions to implement “reasonable security” measures to protect NPI. SFTP is considered a reasonable security measure for transferring NPI securely.
California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA): CCPA, applicable to organizations that do business in California and meet certain revenue thresholds, requires the “reasonable security” of personal information. CCPA does not explicitly specify encryption, but it does require organizations to take appropriate safeguards to protect personal information. SFTP can be considered a reasonable security measure for protecting personal information during file transfers.
New York State Department of Financial Services (DFS) Cybersecurity Regulations: DFS, the New York State financial regulator, has issued cybersecurity regulations for financial services companies. These regulations require the implementation of robust security measures, including encryption of sensitive data, during transmission and at rest. SFTP is considered a compliant solution for encrypting sensitive data during file transfers.
