How Do You Spot a Cyber Criminal?

Q: How do you spot a cyber criminal?

Ans:

They will be male, run Linux on their computer, write some Python code, have a hoodie on, and can be seen hunkering over a keyboard.

Ha Ha! That was easy!

Not my words, but paraphrased from the SWIFT CEO Gottfried Leibbrandt at the 14th annual European Financial Services Conference in Brussels [here].

There in, perhaps, lies a bit of a problem in cyber crime. The threat can still be seen as a stereotypical one of a young male hacking together a bit of code. So if we see this as our threat, we can purchase the best security in the world, and define the best access controls, and purchase the best firewalls, and implement the best cryptography, and we will be safe. But we forgot about one thing … humans like money, and some people will do anything possible to get it! Humans, too, often don’t follow a script and are ingenious at finding new ways to do things.

So basically we are moving into an era where crime is now enabled by the Internet, so the opportunities are open to all, and the rewards can be vast. And YOU are just as likely to be a cybercriminal as a young male hacking some code together. The opportunity to make lots of money is often not the motivation of the stereotypical young male hacker.