Ebook: Preventing Digital Extortion

Cover; Credits; About the Author; About the Reviewer; www.PacktPub.com; Customer Feedback; Table of Contents; Preface; Chapter 1: Introduction to Cyber Extortion; Cybercrime -- underdefined and underregulated; The concept of cybercrime; Critical attributes of cybercrime; Where and how -- realm; Why -- motivation; Who -- the criminal deed component; Types of common cyber threats; Cybercrime targeting consumers; Cybercrime targeting businesses; Cybercrime in relation to overall computer crime; Cybercrime localized -- what is the risk in your region?; North and South America; Europe; Asia; Africa.;Learn the art of preventing digital extortion and securing confidential dataAbout This Book* Get acquainted with multiple cyber extortion attacks and techniques to mitigate them* Learn how DDOS, Crypto Virus, and other cyber extortion techniques can infect your computers, smartphones, servers, and cloud* A concise, fast-paced guide that develops your skills in protecting confidential data by leveraging widely used toolsWho This Book Is ForThis book targets IT security managers, IT security engineers, security analysts, and professionals who are eager to avoid digital extortion for themselves or their organizations. They may have heard of such attacks but are not aware of their various types, techniques, and business impact. What You Will Learn* Delve into the various types, stages, and economics of digital extortion* Understand the science behind different attacks* Understand the gravity of and mechanics behind ransomware and prevent and mitigate data breaches and financial losses* Use effective tools to defend against ransomware* Analyze attacks, the money flow, and cyber insurance processes* Learn the art of preventing digital extortion and securing confidential data* Get an idea of the future of extortion tactics and how technological advances will affect their development In DetailMore and more cyber threats keep emerging every day, affecting organizations across the board, targeting the entire spectrum of the Internet. Digital--or cyber--extortion so far has come across as the most serious of such threats as it seeks to profit from criminal activity, akin to blackmail. Such extortion has been rising exponentially in the digital age and has become a huge illegal money-making business, affecting users and organizations ranging from small businesses to large enterprises. This is an insightful study spelling out in detail the ways and means employed by cyber criminals in targeting various devices and the multiple dangers such malicious activity embodies. Here will be found an overview of methods employed to impact and infect computers, smartphones, servers, and the IoT for cyber extortion. Then, it will move on to specific subjects in more detail, covering attacks such as DDoS-based extortion, cryptoviruses, and ransomware. You will learn how to prevent such attacks and eliminate them if you are compromised. This book will help you become a pro at securing your data and preventing your organization from paying a hefty ransom. Style and approachThis step-by-step guide will start with the fundamentals of digital or cyber extortion and the various techniques used by hackers to demand ransom from an organization. It also focuses on types of ransomware and how it can infect your computer, mobile, cloud, server, and IOT. This practical guide will also explain how you can eliminate such attacks by leveraging various open source/commercial tools.