MEERA, KEEMPEE A.

EE-201

1.What motivates cybercriminals, aside from money?

Those who are motivated by ego derive satisfaction creating code that is both elegant
and innovative. Those that are motivated by entertainment seek to do things like interfere or humiliate
for the fun of it. Kilger notes that due to infusion of less technical individuals into the digital space
along with an expanded environment, entertainment as a motivation has gained momentum. One
example of this type of motivation is when a cybercriminal group dumps company data for the lulz or
tries to humiliate and damage a company brand or individuals employed by the company. There are
also individuals who are motivated by social group inclusion who generally have to meet particular
requirements to join the group such as hacking a university departmental database to prove to the
group that they have a certain level of expertise. This occurs frequently in underground forums where
a member must be vetted via other members and through performing some type of hacking act.

2.What Hardware, software and social-engineering attacks on RSA encryption and

authentication?
This might involve sending the target an email purporting to be from someone else
(phishing) and using emotions, such as fear or a sense of urgency, to persuade them to reveal
information or download a malicious file. Some of the biggest data breaches in history have used
social engineering. For example, one of the world’s largest IT security companies, RSA, got hacked in
2011 by an employee who opened a malware-laden Excel spreadsheet sent through email. Just by
this simple action, the unfortunate employee ended up compromising the company’s entire IT network
and RSA were forced to redistribute 40 million SecureID tokens (one of their flagship products) to
their customers. only partially mitigate the risk of social engineering emails reaching their intended
targets as there will always be emails that slip under the radar of even the most advanced filters.
Moreover, even if a phishing email does get categorised as “spam”, it is still at risk of being opened.
This happened in the infamous RSA attack of 2011 when an employee retrieved a phishing email in
their spam folder and opened it, which resulted in a significant data breach.

3.What is the Cybersecurity of biometric authentication?

Biometric security is fast becoming the preferred way to safeguard companies and
individuals from hackers intent on fraud and identity theft. Fingerprint readers, iris scans and facial
recognition have become mainstream, led by technology companies such as Apple.This technology
delivers significant advantages in the fight against cyber crime. I’ve identified the two main issues
which individuals and organisations need to be aware of to protect themselves and the digital
information they hold:Individuals must understand that fingerprint or facial recognition can be ‘hacked’
as cyber criminals look to either steal or ‘spoof’ biometric data.Organisations, for example hospitals
which hold patient medical history, blood samples or DNA profiles, must understand the security
implications of a data breach, and their potential liability.
4.How do people become cybercriminals?
We know that cybercriminals are almost always seeking financial gain, but it
seems that this is not usually what young cybercriminals have in mind when they take their first steps
over to the “dark side”.For example, an interesting report by the UK’s National Crime Agency (NCA)
found that many are not necessarily motivated by financial reward. In fact, recognition from their
peers, popularity in the forums they belong to, and a sense of success, are bigger influencing
factors.“The sense of accomplishment at completing a challenge, and proving oneself to peers are
the main motivations for those involved in cybercriminality,” the authors of the paper stated.As an
example, the report includes the testimony given by an 18-year-old who was arrested for
unauthorized access to a US government
website. At the time of his arrest he said: “I did it to impress the people in the hacking community, to
show them I had the skills to pull it off … I wanted to prove myself”

5.What is the correlation between people's views on physical and cybersecurity?

To enhancing power grid resilience defending against malicious cyber
attacks, it is prerequisite to clarify the connection and relationship of cyber and physical
infrastructure of power grids. Nonetheless, the evolvement of cyber attacks from initial attempts to
causing extensive impact on the physical part of power grid has not been thoroughly explored.

6.What is the impact of cultural and political biases on cybersecurity habits (high-quality
passwords, regular backups, etc)?
With globalization enabled by transport technology, communications technology
and global markets, and cyber used so widely within the economy and our personal lives, its reach
extends deep into the political landscape. Cyber runs our economy, it can be used to reach large
amounts of the population, for committing crime, be weaponize and it affects national security – and
therefore the state – at its core. All of which means that it has a direct impact on public interest and
therefore attracts political attention. UK government figures suggest cyber breaches have hit 93% of
large corporations and 87% of small firms, with these attacks often criminally inspired. In some cases,
governments may even be the actual perpetrators, of politically motivated attacks, sometimes
resorting to hiring criminal gangs where they do not have the ‘in-house skills’ or simply don’t want the
attribution themselves.