Americans duped by romance & pig butchering scams have ‘paid for North Korea’s missile program,’ cybercrime wiz warns
A CYBERSECURITY expert has revealed the shocking truth behind some of the most lucrative scams and cyberattacks targeting Americans.
The U.S. Sun spoke to Lisa Plaggemier, the executive director of the National Cybersecurity Alliance, in the wake of the first major AT&T data breach in March this year.
Millions of customers had their home addresses, phone numbers, social security numbers, and dates of birth compromised in the leak.
This was followed by another data spill last month that saw the company admit that “nearly all” of its cell customers’ call and text records had been exposed.
Data that is stolen during such a hack “gets used in social engineering campaigns by bad guys to trick people,” Plaggemier explained as she warned that these “bad guys” are often states and nations.
While companies are targeted by cyberattacks, individuals are targeted by scammers who may have gotten their details via a data leak.
“There’s a lot of money to be made,” she said while discussing the high levels of “supply and demand” for personal data on the dark web.
DATA WAR
While most people have an image of what they think the typical scammer looks like, Plaggemier warned that this is usually incorrect.
“China, Russia, North Korea, and Iran, plus a couple of African countries are responsible for the vast majority of these cyber attacks,” the director revealed.
“This isn’t just a kid down the street in his mom’s basement. This is a machine.”
Plaggemier revealed that often major companies who are forced to constantly fight off cyberattacks and scammers are “fighting against a nation.”
“You’re not just at risk from somebody after your money or your data,” she warned.
“It was reported a couple of months ago that the money gained from cybercrime in the US from North Korean attackers went straight into their missile program.
“So Americans have paid for the North Korea missile program.
China, Russia, North Korea, and Iran, plus a couple of African countries are responsible for the vast majority of these cyber attacks.
Lisa Plaggemier
“We’re talking about billions of dollars that people lose – romance scams, pig butchering scams.
“I don’t like seeing things like the AT&T data breach but I really don’t like seeing little ladies scammed out of their life savings and that happens every day.”
3 steps to take after data breach
Cybersecurity expert Lisa Plaggemeier has three top tips to keep your data protected before and after a breach:
- Keep an eye out for phishing texts, calls, or any other forms of communication that may be using information that has been leaked.
- Do not recycle passwords, especially after a leak has occurred and you are instructed to change your password on the affected account. Use a password manager if necessary to keep all passwords unique.
- Enable multi-factor authentication across all personal accounts and any key services like banks that do not have this option, consider ditching them.
Last year, one in four Americans lost money to scams with an average loss of $500, the Federal Trade Commission revealed.
While the top reported scams were in the imposter category with losses of $2.7 billion, investment scams, which are also known as pig-butchering scams, saw massive growth in terms of the losses suffered by victims.
The term pig-butchering applies to the idea that scammers will fatten a victim up before metaphorically slaughtering them.
This is done by getting the victim to gradually invest more and more money, usually in cryptocurrency, before leaving their accounts drained of money.
The cybersecurity expert warned that Russia and China are some of the best in the world at launching cyber attacks to get access to personal data.
She revealed that companies are constantly battling a “tall order” by being asked to defend themselves and their clients from countries like Russia.
“They’ll do it because they have to, but if you’re not right 100% of the time, you’ve got a problem,” she said.
To help companies in their battle against bad actors, Plaggemier previously gave readers of The U.S. Sun advice on what to do after a hack to try and protect data.
She revealed the rookie error that “so many of us do” but that “bad guys” know about and take advantage of after a hack.
Meanwhile, AT&T customers are calling on the company to issue those affected by the latest breach a cash payout in compensation.