The next critical mission in integrated safety communication systems and the financial sector is data and application systems that make it easier to combat cybercrime.
This is a view expressed by Mangaraju Vuppala, product development manager of Motorola Solutions in Singapore.
In welcoming delegates at Motorola's Critical Communications World Conference in Marina Bay Sands, Singapore, Vuppala stated that there's an increase in 'hactivist' manifestos being shared through robust infrastructure and global social organisation globally.
"Welcome to the digital underground where data is the new currency," said Vuppala. "The data street value is more than drug trafficking and we are all at risk of cyber attacks. Unlike before, the global cybercrime network is strengthening and expanding with cyber espionage attacks being hatched every day."
According to Vuppala, Motorola's in-house research team found that 80% of major enterprises suffered cyber attacks in 2013; and there was a 91% increase in targeted cyber espionage attacks against companies in the same year.
"Furthermore, 187 International Monetary Fund member states experienced sophisticated cyber attacks in 2011 that continue to this day, and economic damage of $500 million was recorded in South Korea as a result of suspected North Korea cyber warfare."
Law enforcement
To add to this, Vuppala noted that 70% of law enforcement agencies in developing markets report being ill-equipped to combat cyber crime.
How you protect your confidentiality, maintain integrity and ensure easy availability remain key considerations, Vuppala said.
The said digital underground demands that passwords are stolen to penetrate agency networks and data records, noted Vuppala, adding that devices are being cloned to connect to secure networks, while data files are being taken hostage and used for ransom.
Additionally, he said, viruses are being deployed to take control of personal devices. Criminals also now have the ability to disrupt emergency communications, and well-funded groups are stealing trade and state secrets.
To confront the risk, Vuppala cited the example of companies like Visa, who introduced a new analytic engine in August 2011, which, he said, has changed the way the company combats fraud.
"The analytic platform harnesses the power of big data and the company estimates that the model has identified $2 billion in potential annual incremental fraud opportunities."
Visa's fraud detection efforts moved into the digital world 20 years ago when the authorisation system went online, he pointed out, adding that fraud has declined by two thirds during that period of time.
"In 2005, Visa added advanced authorisation techniques, in which a customer may be asked to provide more than a simple password. However, six cents out of every $100 in transactions are believed to be fraudulent."
Earlier analytic models studied as little as 2% of transaction data, continued Vuppala. Now the company said it endeavours to analyse all of its data. In the past, the company based its security assumptions on average fraud rates for merchant categories, like grocery stores.
"Now it says it can analyse the actual market, right down to individual merchant terminals. That allows it to drill down on hundreds of attributes, such as average authorisation volumes, average ticket sizes and frequency of purchases that turn out to be fraudulent."
Government intervention
Also, you have governments already regulating how organisations may use personal data, what privacy rights individuals have, and myriad other issues involved with the new data marketplace, noted Vuppala.
"If anything, regulation is likely to increase in the coming years as privacy advocates and consumers step up their demands," he said. "Companies are working hard to cash in on the market for personal data. They range from aggregator behemoths such as Rapleaf and Acxiom, which hold information on as many as 500 million consumers globally, to start-ups such as Personal.com, which helps individuals control and make use of their own personal data."
The value of data can be measured easily, noted Vuppala, stating that, as many of today's most successful companies have demonstrated, data appreciates in value when translated into meaningful information.
"Balancing the need to help businesses create value from data and the need to protect individual privacy isn't easy, and key questions remain about how government agencies should protect citizens' digital privacy rights," added Vuppala. "Developing standards for the use of personal data and a Digital Privacy Bill of Rights are steps in the right direction."
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