Symantec, the fraud prevention group, has established the largest civilian threat collection network in the world, and one of the most comprehensive collections of cyber security threat intelligence through their  Symantec Global Intelligence Network™. The annual Internet Security Threat Report from Symantec on the overall state of Internet security, see, revealed that in 2016 globally cyberfraud is still evolving very rapidly:

• Breaches with more than 10 million identities exposed increased to 15 with 7.1 bn exposed in last 8 years
• % Of scanned web-sites with vulnerabilites is fall, particularly those with critical problems
• Ransomware is booming with average amount trebling to $1,077 
• Internet of things: it now takes 2 minutes for an IoT device to be hacked.

Underground marketplace

Most corporate treasury departments have a general appreciation of what is happening, but did you know there is an Underground Marketplace for selling cyberfraud tools and data: 

Source & Copyright©2017 - Symantec

The new concern for corporates is that the sofware tools and systems are now being sold as well as data which takes fraud to another level.

Fraud prevention best practices

Each section of the report covers a major source of cyberfraud:

• Targeted attacks: Espionage, subversion, & sabotage
• Email: Malware, spam, & phishing
• Web attacks, toolkits, & exploiting vulnerabilities online
• Cyber crime & the underground economy
• Ransomware: Extorting businesses & consumers
• New frontiers: Internet of Things, mobile, & cloud threats

At the end of each section, Symantec give a list of best practices in the area to prevent / minimise fraud, and also a list of further material and sources.

---

CTMfile take: Essential reading and then as reference material.