Cyber extortion means blackmail which is an illegal practice conducted by a person who holds or not so important personal, professional or commercial data in his possession. The person who commits this blackmailing is called a cyber extortionist. This blackmailing is done in order to extort ransom from the owner of the data. The data can be of any type ranging from photos, videos, trade secrets, upcoming projects or information related to any private matter.
How is it committed?
Cybercriminals generally carry out cyber extortion/ blackmail by either blocking or reporting access to the sufferer’s computer or overloading its network by running or introducing a large amount of traffic and due to this problem or heavy traffic, victim will not be able to operate his business since the network usually fails to load because of ongoing traffic. The owner of the data incurs significant expenditure on its restoration, which is also a lengthy process that drains the finances of the person.
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The ransom is usually paid in monetary terms else he will be coerced that crucial data will be leaked to the public. Moreover, in such cases, the victim cannot contact the right authorities as there will always be a risk of sharing the private and personal information. As a result, it can be understood that cyber extortion or blackmail is another way of cruelty, which hinders and violates the very principle of privacy.
Types
- Cyber Blackmail
The hacker tries to uncover personal and sensitive data via online entertainment to family members and companions until you pay a payoff through digital blackmail. The guilty party may have something undesirable or upsetting to send. In various situations, they might have obtained private communications, instant messaging, images, or recordings through illegal ways.
- Database Ransom Attacks:
Guilty parties recognize and seize data sets that utilise weak links and on the name of leaking of personal data and information the defaulting party blackmails the sufferer or victim and demands ransom for the same.
Effects
Some unwanted outcomes of cyber extortion can include data breaches, business losses, damage to one’s reputation, loss of customers, and monetary losses.
In a data breach, attackers may threaten to leak stolen data unless the victim pays up. If the victim can’t meet the demand, it risks losing confidential and personal data. If the breach contains sensitive data, the offender may face legal action as well as harsh penalties from regulatory agencies enforcing cyber-extortion laws.
Protection
- Identity Access Management (IAM)/Privileged Account Management (PAM)
- Network segmentation/segregation
- Configuration management practices – hardened baseline configurations
- Service account management
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