The newspapers are already warning against cybercriminals offering a vaccine against Covid-19. It has never been easier to become a cybercriminal, also because legislation worldwide is lagging behind. Via the Internet or the Darknet criminals offer crime as a service (CaaS). This involves asking a third party to infiltrate or even shut down another party’s computer network. The trade in malware is a multi-million euro business worldwide. Companies, organisations and also private individuals are increasingly prepared to pay for getting back control over their own servers and PCs.
Another phenomenon in the field of cybercrime is so-called hacktivism. This means influencing a government by intimidation or threats. Another form is trying to influence a part of the population by means of coercion. Hacktivism is always politically motivated, either to denounce certain matters or to ventilate dissatisfaction with certain legislation in a country or continent. The bottom line is that this is criminal behaviour, simply because those active in it try to hack or shut down other people’s networks.
Nowadays, 3D printers are superseded by 4D ones and bio-printers, which can be used to commit crimes. In films we have already seen that it is possible to print faces and hands. This is no longer science fiction. Even with modern 3D printers it is possible to print somebody’s hand and wear it as a glove. In this way criminals can access fingerprint-protected and hand-scan-protected systems. Besides, 3D printers are also used to print firearms. However, there is shockingly little to no legislation against all this at the moment.
What can companies, organisations and private individuals do prevent themselves from falling victim to cybercriminals? The first rule is to never be naïve and never click any link in an email without checking well first where the email came from. The next thing is to get the security policy up to date concerning computer and internet use and to have a proper protection of their systems. Thirdly, passwords have to be changed regularly and should be very hard to guess. Finally, it is the government’s move to create legislation at national or supra-national levels. Any country should be able to prosecute cybercriminals wherever they are geographically located. As long as countries such as North Korea, China and Russia have cybercriminals on the state’s payroll, the problem can only get bigger and the need for other countries to do something against cybercrime can only get higher.