4.3 RESULTADOS
5.7.5 Lineamiento para evaluar la propuesta
horses, and other malware.
73As concerns the trends with regard to
malware
, a UK source reported the following74:• During the first half of 2011, 1,245,403 new computer malware programmes
were identified, which was 15.7% more than in the previous six months. The average number of new malware programmes per day was 6,881.
• Among the different malware categories, Trojan horses and adware75 recorded an
above average increase. The number of backdoors76 and downloaders declined
slightly.
• In the first half of 2011 there were a total of 2,670 active malware families.
• The share of Windows malware increased to 99.6%. Classic Windows
programme files decreased by 0.3%, but an increase in .NET programmes compensated for this loss.
• Malware programmes active on websites and malware for mobile devices showed
an upward trend.
While it is not clear from the source to what extent these attacks relate to identity theft, the increasing trend in malware can be assumed to also result in an increasing trend in identity theft carried out by such means.
The
downward trend of phishing
is confirmed in other sources that consider theproblem of phishing worldwide. For example, in the second half of 2011 there were at least 83,083 unique phishing attacks worldwide in 200 top-level domains. This is less than the 112,472 attacks that were observed in the first half of 2011. The decrease was explained as being due in part to a decrease in phishing attacks that leveraged shared
virtual servers to compromise multiple domains at once.77 Another US source estimated
that in 2011, the number of phishing attacks decreased by 2%78.
Some data on the use of phishing and other methods are available from national sources. For example, of the 6,800 cases of digital (online) identity fraud registered by the German Criminal Police Office in 2009, most cases occurred when using accounts
73https://www.bsi.bund.de/SharedDocs/Downloads/DE/BSI/Publikationen/Lageberichte/Lagebericht 2011.pdf?__blob=publicationFile
74 http://www.gdatasoftware.co.uk/uploads/media/G_Data_MalwareReport_H1_2011_EN.pdf
75 Adware are programmes that hijack computers for profit, normally hidden inside so-called "free" downloads and pop-up ads that forcibly install software on systems with improper security configurations. http://antivirus.about.com/od/spywareandadware/a/adware.htm
76 A backdoor is a secret or undocumented means of accessing a computer system. Many programmes have backdoors that have been placed by the programmer in order to allow them to gain access to troubleshoot or change the programme. Some backdoors are, however, placed by hackers once they gain access to get easier access next time or in case their original entrance is discovered. http://netsecurity.about.com/cs/generalsecurity/g/def_backdoor.htm
77 http://www.antiphishing.org/reports/APWG_GlobalPhishingSurvey_2H2011.pdf
of telecommunication services abusively (over 3,000 cases), followed by phishing in the context of online banking (over 2,920 cases). In the case of phishing, it can be noted that
the number of cases (still) increased by 64% compared to 2008. 79 An overview is
provided in the following table.
Table 3.5: Extract - cases of cybercrime in Germany (2009 and 2010)
80Type of offence 2009 2010 Change (in %)
Online fraud 22,963 27,292 +18.9%
Phishing 11,491 15,190 +32.2%
Phishing in the context of online banking81 2,923 5,331 +82.4%
Cybercrime 50,254 59,839 +19.1%
According to the Federal Criminal Police Office these figures should, however, be viewed with caution as there is a significant under-reporting since many victims do not realise or at least do not report that identity theft has taken place.82 In 2010, the Police
Office estimated it was aware of only 40% of all cases.
Hacking and interception also seem to be on the rise.
According to CIFAS, this ispart of an overall trend of an increased number of cases where the fraudster gains access (e.g. through computer hacking, interception of post details, social engineering through popular websites etc.) to another person’s account details and takes over the account. This type of fraud increased by 18% during 2011, which means that the two data driven frauds (identity fraud and account takeover combined) now account for over 58% of all fraud identified (online and offline). Furthermore, the number of victims of both types of fraud has – when combined – risen by 10% from the levels in 2010; underlining the very real cost of these crimes.83
Skimming, on the other hand, seems to be decreasing
. According to EuropeanATM Statistics, in 2011 the incidences of card skimming fell by 26% to the lowest level
since 2008. 84 Overall, losses due to ATM related fraud attacks were estimated to have
fallen by 13% from 268 million euro to 234million euro. This fall was stated to be driven by a continued reduction in losses due to card skimming attacks, which fell 13% from 267million euro to 232 million euro. The majority (79%) of the ATM related card skimming losses were further indicated to continue to be international (losses outside national borders by criminals using stolen card details) with most cases occurring in countries outside of Europe. The top three locations for such losses were indicated to be the USA, the Dominican Republic and Colombia. In the interviews carried out by us, it was explained that this reduction is in part due to the increased use of chips on credit
79 Federal Criminal Police Office, “IuK-Kriminalität: Bundeslagebild 2009”, 2010 80 Federal Criminal Police Office, „Cybercrime: Bundeslagebild 2010“,
http://www.bka.de/nn_193360/DE/Publikationen/JahresberichteUndLagebilder/Cybercrime/cybercri me__node.html?__nnn=true
81 This is a subcategory of phishing.
82 Federal Criminal Police Office, “IuK-Kriminalität: Bundeslagebild 2009” 83 http://www.cifas.org.uk/annualfraudtrends-jantwelve
cards as well as the use of mobile card readers, implying that the card is read at the table in restaurants rather than being taken away from the sight of the customer.
In terms of
insider abuse of Internet access or e-mail
, this threat includes twoseparate “threat vectors”: (i) threats posed by malicious employees; and (ii) threats due to employees who have made some kind of unintentional blunder. Figures have only been identified for the US, which suggest a ratio of 60-40.
As concerns the
abuse of freely available information
, the issues of malpractices andabuse of Internet have been rather constantly increasing the last decades.85 The rapid
increase in particular in the last years is e.g. due to the increasing
use of social
networking sites
such as Facebook, where users post information about themselvesonline86.