cyber trends
BROMIUM, A PIONEER AND
LEADER IN APPLICATION ISOLATION
AND CONTAINMENT THAT STOPS
ADVANCED MALWARE ATTACKS, HAS
ANNOUNCED THE FINDINGS OF AN
INDEPENDENT ACADEMIC STUDY INTO
CYBERCRIMINALS’ INCREASINGLY
AGGRESSIVE EXPLOITATION OF
SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORMS.
T
he report details
the range of
techniques utilised
by cybercriminals
to exploit trust
and enable rapid
infection across
social media. It also details the range of
services being offered in plain sight on
social networks including hacking tools
and services, botnets for hire, facilitated
digital currency scams and more.
The findings come from Social Media
Platforms and the Cybercrime Economy,
an extensive six-month academic study
sponsored by Bromium and undertaken
by Dr Mike McGuire, Senior Lecturer in
Criminology at the University of Surrey.
The study is the next chapter of Into the
Web of Profit and examines the role of
social media platforms in the cybercrime
economy. Key insights include:
18
Research
shows
cybercriminals
earn billions
by exploiting
social media
• Social media-enabled cybercrimes
are generating at least US$3.25
billion in global revenue annually
• One in five organisations have been
infected with malware distributed via
social media
• Reports of cybercrime involving
social media grew by more than 300-
fold between 2015 and 2017 in the
US, and social media-enabled crime
quadrupled between 2013 and 2018
in the UK
• Over 1.3 billion social media users
have had their data compromised
within the last five years and between
45–50% of the illicit trading of
data from 2017 to 2018 could be
associated with breaches of social
media platforms
• Four of the top five global websites
hosting cryptomining code are social
media platforms
• The number of enterprises infected
by cryptomining malware doubled
from 2017 to 2018
• Social media platforms contain up
to 20% more methods by which
malware can be delivered to users –
Issue 12
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