DIGITAL LIFE

Crime as a service: hackers at your service

About a year ago, I started doing something that would have seemed unimaginable at the beginning of my career: I stopped answering cell phone calls from unknown numbers. The reporter inside me turns up her nose at the decision. After all, I might be missing out on good stories. But she was overcome by the overwhelming wave of digital scams dominating phone calls. I'm tired of answering calls asking for confirmation of purchases I didn't make or acknowledgment of investments made at banks or brokerages where I don't have an account. Or worse: where I do have one, but haven't made any transactions. 

Not to mention the SMS I receive every week warning me about R$3,000 spent on my nonexistent Bradesco bank credit card. Online fraud is now a $500 billion industry, with fairly democratic targets. Victims range from multi-billion-dollar corporations to unsuspecting seniors. And the scale of the problem is only growing. The number of attacks is increasing 20% ​​annually, according to the consultancy Cybersecurity Ventures. By 2025, the global cost of cybercrime will reach US$10.5 trillion, a figure second only to the GDP of the United States or China.

Brazilians recently got a taste of the boldness and power of the cybercrime industry. In late June, criminals embezzled approximately R$1 billion from financial institutions' reserve accounts held with the Central Bank, in the largest hacking attack on the financial system in Brazil's history. The target was C&M Software, a technology service provider that connects banks without the infrastructure to the Pix system. A few weeks later, the record was nearly surpassed. Hackers stole another US$710 million under circumstances similar to the attack on C&M Software. This time, the target was Sinqia, another provider of connections to the Central Bank via the Pix system.

In this edition of Época, we show how cybercrime has become professionalized. Forget that image of a teenager who spends the night programming alone. Today, hackers act like entrepreneurs who outsource tasks. They rent fraud tools from international groups and find employees within companies willing to participate in scams in exchange for a cut of the profits. Welcome to the era of crime as a service. In this new world, the evolution of technology empowers criminals. 

Artificial intelligence can make attacks more precise and sophisticated. With deepfakes on the rise, it's possible to confound even the most skeptical. And soon, we'll have agents skilled in executing scams without human supervision. Cryptocurrencies, meanwhile, offer faster operations and facilitate international transactions.

Protecting yourself and your business has never been so difficult. However, technology doesn't have to be an ally only for criminals. In this month's magazine, we bring valuable tips on how to use it to your advantage, to circumvent scams targeting both individuals and businesses. Don't be fooled. It's impossible to achieve virtual immunity, but being vaccinated will give you an advantage over many less protected potential targets. So, better stop putting off using that two-factor authentication, okay? Here's a tip.

Reporter: Elisa Campos(Época), Brazil