A report from Europol – the European Union’s (EU) law enforcement agency, claims that the volume, scope and cost of cybercrime have reached very high levels – and are set to get even higher.

Cybercrime offences were becoming the norm and overtaking the reporting of “traditional” crimes in some EU countries, warned the Europol in a report that identified eight trends in the underworld of cybercrime.

“The relentless growth of cybercrime remains a real and significant threat to our collective security in Europe,” warned Europol’s Director Rob Wainwright in the report released Wednesday.

“Europol is concerned about how an expanding cybercriminal community has been able to further exploit our increasing dependence on technology and the Internet,” Wainwright said.

Cyber-facilitated activities relating to trafficking in human beings, terrorism and other threats have seen a “a marked shift” as found in the report, he added.

Eight cybercrime trends that everyone should beware of has been identified by Europol’s “Internet Organised Crime Threat Assessment” for 2016 report.

Crime-as-a-Service

With an increasing number of organized crime groups, Crime-as-a-Service model that interconnects specialist providers of cybercrime tools and services is increasing and the digital underground is underpinned by this trend. Terrorist actors clearly have the potential to access this sector in the future.

Ransomware

In a trend unlikely to change for the foreseeable future are Ransomware and banking Trojans and they remain the top malware threats.

The criminal use of data

Data is increasingly being used to commit more complex fraud, encrypted for ransom, or used directly for extortion and hence still remains a key commodity for cyber-criminals.

Payment fraud

While malware attacks directly against ATMs continue to evolve and proliferate, EMV (chip and PIN), geo-blocking and other industry measures continue to erode card-related fraud within the EU.

Online child sexual abuse

An escalation in the live streaming of child abuse has been facilitated by the use of end-to-end encrypted platforms for sharing media, coupled with the use of largely anonymous payment systems.

Abuse of the Darknet

The availability of cybercrime tools and services, and illicit commodities such as firearms on the Darknet, provides opportunity for terrorist groups to use cyber techniques to conduct attacks even though such attempts are limited at present.

Social engineering

CEO fraud, a refined variant of spear phishing, has become a key threat as the report noted an increase of phishing aimed at high value targets.

Virtual currencies

For payment for criminal products and services in the digital underground economy and the Darknet Bitcoin remains the currency of choice. Bitcoin has also become the standard payment solution for extortion payments.

There were reasons to be positive about progress in tackling cybercriminals, despite all these indications, noted Steve Wilson, the head of the European Cybercrime Centre.

“2016 has seen the further evolution of established cybercrime trends….However there are many positives to be taken from this year’s report. Partnerships between industry and law enforcement have improved significantly, leading to the disruption or arrest of many major cybercriminal syndicates and high-profile individuals associated with child abuse, cyber intrusions and payment card fraud, and to innovative new prevention programs such as the no more ransom campaign,” said Wilson.

(Adapted from CNBC)