The US Secret Service has set up a Cyber Fraud Task Force (CFTF) on July 10, after combining its Electronic Crimes Task Forces and Financial Crimes Task Forces into a one point network.
As per the media release, the Secret Service has been working out the details for the past two years to establish a combined task force to fight cyber offenses linked to financial industry and resolve issues such as enterprise email compromise frauds, malware attacks and credit card data theft, among others.
The CFTF seems to have been set up to address the issue of increasing level of illegal transactions of stolen credit card info and banking details of enterprises via dark web.
The Secret Service expressed worries about the part played by cryptos behind online unlawful trades as they turned out to be “one of the primary means by which criminals launder their illicit profits.”
Regarding the roll out of CFTF, Ameet Naik, security expert at PerimeterX, opined as follows:
“Financial crimes and cybercrimes are two sides of the same coin. Digital skimming and Magecart attacks fuel dark web marketplaces and surface in the real world as payment fraud. That hurts businesses and erodes confidence in the financial system. The combined FBI Cyber Fraud Task Force will enable better data sharing and strike at the root of the problem.”
The objective of the newly established CFTF is to enhance the coordination and advocacy of finest conducts for all its scrutiny of financially inspired cybercrimes. The Secret Service stated that the country stares at a “growing threat” of cross-border cybercrime, specifically in opposition to the US financial framework.
Erich Kron, an executive at KnowBe4, involved in raising awareness about cybersecurity at KnowBe4, said:
“This consolidation is good news, as so many financial crimes these days have a cyber-element and cybercrime has a traditional element, such as the use of money mules to withdraw and muddy the money trail. By consolidating, there is far less bureaucracy and red tape to deal with when crimes cross both sides of the spectrum. Given the sheer amount of money that the organizations within the U.S. are hemorrhaging every year due to financial and cybercrime, it is nice to see the government taking this seriously and making moves to address the issue.”
A study conducted by Digital Shadows a few weeks before disclosed that more than 15 billion valuable documents are being circulated in dark web, mirroring a 300% rise since 2018. Accessible data varies from network access records, bank login info and even data pertaining to streaming services such as Neflix.
Notably, the quantum of successful malware attacks recorded a decline between January and April 2020 in the US public sector against the backdrop of Covid-19 outbreak. Nevertheless, academics, in recent weeks, have taken note of a reversal in trend, with hacking incidents once again beginning to rise.
