Why we need global rules to crack down on cybercrime

Published in The World Economic Forum

By Robert Muggah

Cybercrime is high on the agenda of nation states, corporations and international organizations everywhere. As the forthcoming 2023 Global Risk Report will show, deepening geopolitical tensions have increased the prevalence of so-called advanced persistent threats (APTs), which are becoming as sophisticated as they are pervasive.

New technology is scaling up the reach and impact of cybercrime: malware and ransomware attacks (the latter threaten to publish data or permanently block it unless a ransom is paid) soared by over 350 percent and 430 per cent respectively in 2020. Next generation tools are bypassing antivirus programs, which is why living off the land (LOtL) attacks, in which attackers use legitimate software and functions to perpetrate malicious actions, accounted for almost two thirds of all reported incidents in 2021.

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