David Sancho, Mayra Rosario Fuentes report:
The last 20 years have seen the cyberthreat landscape transform markedly: From an era of cyberattacks with damaging payloads, the cybercrime space has evolved to one where malicious actors have organized themselves into groups, mainly driven by financial gain.
Consequently, organizations now contend with a new breed of cybercriminals fiercely competing among themselves to claim a bigger stake in a highly lucrative market. Given present circumstances, malicious actors have organized themselves in ways that show a remarkable resemblance to legitimate corporations. Our research findings show that as revenues and membership of cybercriminal groups expand, their organizational structure becomes more complex because new tiers in the hierarchy inevitably arise in the process.
Our research paper titled “Inside the Halls of a Cybercrime Business” closely examines small, medium, and large criminal groups based on cases from law enforcement arrests and insider information. We also juxtapose each of these to traditional businesses of comparable size to obtain relevant insights about these criminal organizations.
Our report discusses how threat researchers and law enforcement can use information on the structure of a criminal organization to aid their investigation. In particular, such knowledge can lead them to discover new key pieces of information that might help in the fight against their cybercriminal adversaries.
Read more at TrendMicro.