Australian financial compliance enforcement agency AUSTRAC has released two new guides to help entities to spot when customers are using crypto for illicit means, or when they are being forced to pay the creators of ransomware. But it warned that debanking customers merely on suspicion of such activity was a harmful practice with serious negative effects. In an announcement posted earlier today, AUSTRAC noted that the growing acceptance, value and adoption of crypto and blockchain tech has been accompanied by an increase in cybercrime. “Cyber-enabled crime is an increasing threat to Australians. According to the Australian Cyber Security Centre (ACSC), 500 ransomware attacks were reported in the 2020-21 financial year, an increase of nearly 15 percent from the previous year,” AUSTRAC state...
The 100 Days of Coronavirus report – published by Mimecast – shows that the volume of malicious and opportunistic cybercrime has increased significantly by 33% in the period January to March 2020. The new report has found that in the period January to March 2020 monthly volumes of: Spam and opportunistic cybercrime detections increased by 26.3%, Impersonation fraud detections increased by 30.3%, Malware detections increased by 35.16%, and Blocking of URL clicks increased by 55.8%, meaning people are more likely now to click on unsafe links than before the outbreak. Over the months of February and March, as South Africa reported its first case and moved swiftly into lockdown, the Threat Intelligence Team saw dramatic increases in cyberattacks in Sub-Saharan Africa. Carl Wearn, Head of E-Cri...