The Information Security Group of Africa has partnered with various local and international agencies and organisations to help combat the massive increase in cyber crime, by launching the eCrime Portal (http://www.ecrime.org.za).
It was confirmed that the South African government had suffered R400 million in known losses to cyber crime at the end of 2008. What is really scary is how often cyber crime is unreported or even worse undetected.
Zurich Insurance confirmed that it had lost the personal information of 550 000 South Africans in October 2009. According to a recent Pomenon Institute study, the cost of US data breach incidents in 2009 increased to $204 per compromised customer record. What's more, the 2009 Verizon data breach report estimates that 91% of the data breaches it reviewed were linked to organised crime.
The Protection of Personal Information Bill no nine of 2009 makes it a mandatory legal requirement to report all incidents where personal information is compromised, and introduces civil as well as criminal liability for non-compliance.
In order to make it easier to report cyber crime, the eCrime Portal will enable electronic submission of cyber crime incidents. Not only will the eCrime Portal assist organisations to comply with the new reporting requirements, it will also enable more accurate South African cyber crime statistics to be collected.
The latest trend in eCrime is what is known as the advanced persistent threat (APT). Such attacks are typically highly targeted, stealthy, customised and persistent. They also often involve intensive surveillance and advanced social engineering. In many cases, ATP's target highly placed individuals within organisations, who are tricked into visiting malicious sites or downloading malicious software onto their systems.
Last week, Amit Yoran, CEO of NetWitness and former director of the US-CERT and National Cyber Security Division of the Department of Homeland Security, announced that they had unearthed a massive botnet, named Kneber, affecting at least 75 000 computers at 2 500 companies and government agencies worldwide. He added that some electronic fingerprints suggest the same group was behind a recent effort to dupe government officials into downloading spyware via e-mails that purported to be from the National Security Agency and the US military.
What is really frightening is that a one-month snapshot of the information stolen by Kneber included 68 000 corporate login credentials, 2 000 SSL certificate files and a large amount of highly detailed personal information. Systems compromised by the botnet also gave attackers remote access inside the compromised network.
These attacks are in line with a growing trend in South Africa, where gangs of organised e-criminals are targeting critical login identities for corporate and government payment systems. By establishing partnerships between the public and private sectors, the eCrime Portal will enable an incident management capability that ensures the rapid exchange of information between members. Only by streamlining the flow of information is it possible for members to work together to more effectively to combat this next generation of e-crime.
The Information Security Group of Africa is a registered section 21 company established in 2005 and is not biased toward any single vendor, technology or company. ISG Africa was created in response to the increase of information security threats facing companies in Africa. This volunteer group, which consists of security professionals from corporate, government and IT / legal firms within Africa, aims to provide a monthly forum for the exchange of InfoSec information and experience between members and raise awareness of potential vulnerabilities within organisations.
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