The Challenge

Cybercrime to Cost the World $8 trillion USD in 2023 with a 15% per year growth over the next three years, reaching $10.5 trillion USD annually by 2025, up from $3 trillion USD in 2015

With the advent of the internet, cyberspace has transformed the daily lives of people for the better.

The rush to adopt cyberspace, however, has exposed its fragility and vulnerabilities.

Corporations, agencies, national infrastructure, and individuals have been victims of cyberattacks.

Our daily lives, economic vitality, and individual security depend on a stable, safe, and resilient cyberspace.

We rely on this vast array of networks to communicate and travel, power our homes, run our economy, and provide a worthy user experience to any individual surfing the world wide web.

Yet cyber intrusions and attacks have increased dramatically over the last decade, exposing sensitive personal and business information, disrupting critical operations, and imposing high costs on the economy.

What is the current state?

Currently, coping with the challenge of maintaining quality SPS (Security, Privacy, and Safety) demands careful use of the computer system and access to the WWW, supported with a multitude of software programs (Antivirus, Anti-spam, firewall, communication monitoring, authentication, and human testing).

Despite all that effort, the assessment is that only a fraction of the malware is detected and known (Some estimates are that only 5% of viruses are detected by defenses).

Numerous computers are taken without the users even being aware.

The sophistication and complexity of software, requirements of flexibility, scalability, and modularity, and the need for frequent upgrades and downloads present a moving target to the vendors of the defenses.

Accessibility desires, from every PC to any site or page on the WWW, and the seamless sharing, opens the door for hackers.

Vulnerabilities are uncovered all the time. The hackers attack soft areas and take control over large volumes of PCs, presenting a challenge to the cloud systems as well.

Hackers masquerading as legitimate, authenticated users are using the endpoint user PCs to penetrate well-protected systems and networks. The PC endpoints, networked to the cloud, become an “insider”.

Legacy PCs and any computing system (Pads, Smartphones, Notebooks, smart TVs, even smart sensors and servers…) are inherently exposed to hacking. The current approach focuses on prevention – if malware is downloaded and executed in the programmable system, the system is doomed – thus the legacy efforts are on avoidance:

  1. Need to install proper SW: Antivirus, Firewall, Anti-spam
  2. Need for constantly updating and upgrading the protecting SW.
  3. Careful operation of the computer system: Downloading applications and files from the WWW, opening email attachments, accessing sites, responding to emails, and using chatting means (such as Skype or Yahoo).
  4. Unrecognized downloaded malware could cause major damage: To personal data, to PCs, and to the user himself – Account numbers and passwords exposed, emails sent without user knowledge, data transferred from PC to other locations, menacing sites installed in the PC are accessed without user consent.
  5. Infrastructure installations – smart grid, nuclear reactors, smart cars, home automation, and all networked ICS are under risk and need careful continuous monitoring and even then the sophisticated infection will damage it
  6. The compromised PCs become a threat to the network, thus authentication becomes critical. Authentication may be circumvented by sophisticated malware as the automatic synchronization of the various personal means – Smartphones, Pads, notebooks…- takes place.

Malware that gets into the computer system takes over the system. The level of sophistication today does not need to be high to take control of computers. Malware may be designed to:

  1. Replace the antivirus with hackers’ made one.
  2. Modify Firewall listings to allow hackers remote communication and control of the computing system.
  3. Send an email in the name of the user without his knowledge.
  4. Remotely respond to Captcha (Human test) by the hacker (or automated systems).
  5. Upload information to user sites or social network pages.
  6. Install a site (porno or other) in the user’s PC.

What is LOST?

Lost Security

The end user loses control of his computer system to hackers. The computer may be used, without the user knowledge and consent, for: spam, denial of service (DOS) attacks, Pay-Per-Click, hosting of sites, or as means to take over other computers sharing a network with. Performance degradation could be annoying and the user may accept it as a system problem, oblivious to the REAL threat. The user might find himself liable or even facing criminal charges due to the actions of the hacker or information residing on his computer.

Lost Privacy

The hacker (or a site) uses private information to conduct analysis that allows him to manipulate the user activity on the internet. Analysis that exposes the user behavior, friends, and activities – allowing for targeted advertising, send e-mail masquerading as the user, take on other systems, further information accumulation, or cause harm to others. The user does not suffer directly, monetary loses, or exposed to physical threat. Privacy is a basic civil right, sometimes superseding free speech or freedom for action.

Lost Safety

Once a computer system is taken by a hacker and personal information is exposed, safety may become an issue – monetary losses (Identity theft, IP theft, copyright violation, blackmailing…) or physical threats (kidnapping, assassination, burglary…). The hacker access to addresses, bank accounts, credit cards, GPS location data… exposes the user to REAL threat.

Reviewing the depth of the problem and experts’ assessment of the hacking challenge leads to the realization that the technical community gave up on preventing hacking. The current approach is a swift response to any threat that has been discovered – which means; only after a hack is committed and uncovered a response is possible.

Computer systems suffer from a core weakness: Combination of very complex systems that requires upgrades and remote patching on one hand and an error prone, careless, and even malicious users on the other serve as fertile ground to hackers – infection is inescapable.

What is the Cost/Economic Impact?

It is known that increasingly, infected computers are frequently contaminated with dormant malware waiting to cause damage.

It could well be that over 80% of infected computers are not detected!

According to Cybersecurity Ventures, cybercrime in 2023 is estimated to be $8 trillion.

This breaks down to:

  • $667 billion per month
  • $154 billion per week
  • $21.9 billion per day
  • $913 million per hour
  • $15.2 million per minute

Cybercrime is the world’s third-largest economy, after the US and China. It’s predicted to cost $10.5 trillion by 2025

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