Intelligent CISO Issue 21 | Page 25

threat updates EUROPE A hacking tool that was able to give full remote control of a victim’s computer to cybercriminals has been taken down as a result of an international law enforcement operation targeting the sellers and users of the Imminent Monitor Remote Access Trojan (IM-RAT). The investigation, led by the Australian Federal Police (AFP), with international activity coordinated by Europol and Eurojust, resulted in an operation involving numerous judicial and law enforcement agencies in Europe, Colombia and Australia. Coordinated law enforcement activity has now ended the availability of this tool, which was used across 124 countries and sold to more than 14,500 buyers. IM-RAT can no longer be used by those who bought it. AFRICA Research released by KnowBe4, a specialist in cybersecurity awareness training, has revealed a pressing need to educate African citizens on the different cyberattacks. A total of 53% of those surveyed thought that trusting emails from people they knew was good enough, while 64% didn’t know what ransomware was. The survey did show a slightly higher awareness from Mauritian respondents when compared to other countries, while more than half of respondents in Botswana, Egypt, Kenya, Ghana, Morocco and Mauritius have enough security smarts to avoid clicking on links or opening attachments they don’t expect. However, the top five cybercrimes: financial fraud, impersonation scams, business email compromise, extortion attacks, DDOS attacks on critical infrastructure are expected to rise in the coming years. www.intelligentciso.com | Issue 21 25