Notes from Dark Web Fighting Cybercrime Full Hacking Documentary (dated April 2021) found on YouTube:

technology can do a lot of things for us, but greater vulnerability is also built in our everyday lives
the bad guys have to get it right just once. We have to get it right all the time
it’s up to the attacker how deep they get into and how they decide to use your information
your devices can be turned into weapons (aka zombies) without you knowing it
the possibilities of types of cyber crime (or cybercrime) are endless
there are those who have been hacked and know it, and there are those who have been hacked but don’t know it yet (08:15)
556 million people already fall victim of cyber crime each year
in 2020, 50 times more info is stored online, which means 50 times more opportunities for cybercriminals
law enforcement is difficult to stay apace since the technologies are advancing so quickly
when it comes to cybercrime, you need to make decisions quickly

History of the Internet

technology can do a lot of things for us, but greater vulnerability is also built in our everyday lives
the bad guys have to get it right just once. We have to get it right all the time
the internet was born in America in the late 1960s. It was called ARPANET, a small network of government computers sharing information from opposite sides of the country
the internet became popular in the early 1980s

The first cyber crime

the first hackers were interested in exposing flaws
1988 was the first time the internet was hacked by a college student named Robert Morris
Morris Worm: a human made coding error that allowed the worm to replicate itself causing computers globally to be unusable
by accident, the worm brought down 10% of the computers connected to the internet and cost $98 million to clean up
then cyber crime started to become a thing for it was almost risk free compared to robbing a branch of a bank or even an entire bank at once
in 2002, it was already significant when they had 12 victims of identify theft or 25 credit cards that were stolen with $70,000 of loss
in 2014, cyber crime cost the global economy $450 billion. That number skyrocketed to #3 trillion just one year later (03:28)
ransomeware attacks: hackers (04:27)

Modern cyber crime (04:01)

hackers work in well-funded and highly organized groups to steal information and sell it to make money
2017: criminals stole social security numbers, birth dates and more of 143 million Americans from just one major credit reporting agency
ransomeware attacks: hackers take and encrypt data on a computer, then require the user to pay a ransom to unlock it (04:30)
Wannacry ransomware: asking businesses in 150 countries to pay $300 worth of Bitcoin within 3 days or the ransom will go up. After 7 days the data will be completely destroyed
the companies were no longer able to do business coz everything was encrypted
can be life threatening when hospitals have to turn patients away
in 2016, there were 4,000+ ransomware attacks on businesses in the U.S. every single day, which is 3x more than 2015 according to the FBI (35:00)

Internet of things (05:50)

your phone, door lock and even your fridge can go online. It gives an opportunity for hackers to get in
in 2015, there were 15 billion connected devices worldwide, i.e. 2 devices per person on the planet
the number is expected to go up to 80 billion in 2025
every company is rushing to get their products to the market first and security is not their priority
cars that are internet enabled can be stopped on the highway
webcams can be turned on for spying purposes
baby monitors allow criminals to speak to the children in their rooms
an internet enabled toilet in Japan has been hacked before

Zombie computers (07:10)

internet enabled devices in the U.S. that are taken over under a default password
use devices that are connected to the internet globally to inject a significant flow of traffic to pull down websites or block networks

The dark web

3 layers of the Internet:
- clear web: anything you can find in the search engines
- deep web: anything behind usernames and passwords
- dark web: needs specialized software to access
in the dark web, everything is sold in Bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies that secures the transaction so the transaction itself, the buyers and the sellers can all stay anonymous
drug selling (09:48)
counterfeit money selling (10:03)
fake IDs (10:10)
for bad guys to get services from other bad guys
there are ratings and products (10:40)
pastebin: a website to find people’s emails and passwords so you can find their social media presence for instance (11:50)
- e.g. sending a dog mom a pet shop coupon and when she clicks on a link she will get infected with malware
- even an unfunded and unmotivated attacker can do that in 5 minutes

Hacking tools (13:00)

business of selling these tools are booming
there are people for hire to do the job so you don’t need to know it to do it
they are successful because partner with each other

Tools to fight cyber crime

Artificial intelligence (AI) or cognitive computing: the ability of a computer or a machine to think and learn independently
e.g. IBM’s Watson for cybersecurity can get pieces of the puzzle laid out (20:30 – 23:00)
Watson can read 700,000 blog articles and share what its learned as a user enters his search term (25:50)
when Google gives you 8.6 million results of a search term, AI gives only 25
Watson is an assistant to help process a large amount of digital information. It doesn’t replace human. Man and machine need to work together
it requires human interventions to set rules to teach it meanings of terms in cybersecurity context
- e.g. honeypot doesn’t really mean honeypot
- when the word ransomware appears, it should be associated with malware
humans are teaching computers to be better
it’s still up to the analyst to look at those pieces and see where they fit, how they fit, and whether they are a part of the same puzzle
they need to decide quickly whether it’s something they should focus on – is it a real threat or a false positive?

Hackers are highly organized (13:50)

not people sitting in a dark room in a hoodie
they work 9-5 and take the weekends off
they launch most of their attacks on Friday evenings before they had home for the weekend
it’s a business, an industry
by estimate it’s a trillion of dollar a year business and rising
sometimes they have payrolls and employee benefits
but they don’t know each other in the organization
an attacker in the Middle East can make it look like they are in Europe – he may have hacked into a computer in Europe and there may be multiple hops in between so it’s difficult to track

How to win a cyber war (11:37)

OODA loop (a miltary theory): observe, orient, decide, act
if you can do your OODA loop faster than your component, you have an enormous advantage
when you are being attacked, figure out what is going on quickly and respond accurately

How to tell if an account has been hacked

Seeing these 3 things together is almost a guarantee that you, your device or your account has been compromised:

movement of your phone (logging in from London then China within 2 hours)
unusual access attempts on your account
odd access to data, e.g. searching for data 4,000 times/day when you usually do only 40 times/day/day

Live stimulation

practice and rehearse and build your muscle memory so you know what to do when a cybersecurity incident actually happens
response to the breach is causing more damage than the breach did itself
people with military experience response incredibly well, then there are those with emergency medical experience
- they are trained to make decisions quickly with limited information

Job opportunities

2 million open unfilled cybersecurity jobs globally by 2020
the skillsets you need to learn by doing
some may not require a college degree at all
one of their best analyst is a mechanic who has a passion of fixing things and figuring out how things work (36:20)
not blue collar vs white collar, it is a new collar

How to protect your own data

update all of your software
change password regularly
use complicated passwords
use different passwords for bank and social media
ensure your antivirus software is working properly
if your computer is slowing down, you need to check it out
use two-factor authentication to add another layer of security
basic things can protect you from 90% of the threats
10%: do not click on suspect links
the weakest link is always the human