Ransomware and Cybercrime

Description

In May 2021, Jim Gosler, known as the Godfather and commander of US agencies’ cyber offensive capability, said, ''Either the Intelligence Community (IC) would grow and adapt, or the Internet would eat us alive.'' Mr Gosler was speaking at his retirement only several months before the terrorist attacks of 9/11. He possibly did not realise the catalyst or the tsunami that he and his tens of thousands of US IC offensive website operatives had created and commenced. Over the last two decades, what Mr Gosler and his army of Internet keyboard warriors created would become the modus operandi for every faceless, nameless, state-sponsored or individual cybercriminal to replicate against an unwary, ill-protected, and ignorant group of executives and security professionals who knew little to nothing about the clandestine methods of infiltration and weaponisation of the Internet that the US and UK agencies led, all in the name of security. This book covers many cyber and ransomware attacks and events, including how we have gotten to the point of massive digital utilisation, particularly during the global lockdown and COVID-19 pandemic, to online spending that will see twice the monetary amount lost to cybercrime than what is spent online. There is little to no attribution, and with the IC themselves suffering cyberattacks, they are all blamed on being sophisticated ones, of course. We are witnessing the undermining of our entire way of life, our economies, and even our liberties. The IC has lots to answer for and unequivocally created the disastrous situation we are currently in. They currently have little to no answer. We need―no, we must demand―change. That change must start by ensuring the Internet and all connections to it are secure and no longer allow easy access and exfiltration for both the ICs and cybercriminals. Cover Half Title Title Copyright Contents Foreword Preface Chapter 1 Stuxnet to Sunburst and Ransomware Development Chapter 2 Not Secure, F and 0… Chapter 3 Ransomware Lessons Being Learned… So, What Has This to Do with Ransomware? Chapter 4 Colonial Pipeline and CI Companies Is America’s Critical National Infrastructure Prepared for the Ongoing Ransomware Siege, and What Can They Do to Avoid It? Chapter 5 CNA Ransomware Attack and Cyber Insurance Chapter 6 BA, easyJet, and the Travel Industry Chapter 7 Destabilising the United States, Courts, Law Enforcement, and Way of Life Chapter 8 Deterrence Theory and the Five Eyes Faux Pas Chapter 9 Ensuring the Security of Insecurity Chapter 10 Traditional Warfare, the Fat Man, Mistakes Made, and Lessons Still Being Learned and Ignored Chapter 11 Survivorship Bias Chapter 12 Air India Ransomware Faux Pas Chapter 13 Most Common Website Vulnerabilities and Attacks Cross-Site Scripting Injection Attacks Man-in-the-Middle Attacks Distributed Denial of Service Brute Force Attacks Phishing Third-Party Code Zero Day Attacks Cookies Chapter 14 The Old Lady of Threadneedle Street and the FCA Chapter 15 MITRE CWE and Ransom Task Force Chapter 16 Critical National Infrastructure: The Collapse of a Nation Chapter 17 US State Attacks and the Continued Oversight of Security Chapter 18 Conflicts of Interest Chapter 19 Innovation and Disbelief Chapter 20 Blackbaud, Cyberattacks, and Class Action Lawsuits Chapter 21 The World’s Largest Global Economic Shift Chapter 22 It Is Not Setting Goals Too High, but Setting Them Too Low and Achieving Them Chapter 23 Avoiding the Apocalypse Chapter 24 I If a Clever Person Learns from Their Mistakes and a Wise Person Learns from the Mistakes of Others, What Is a Person Who Learns from Neither Known As? Index