Europol boss Rob Wainright has warned that ransomware attacks now number as many as 4000 per day, with cybercrime operations large and sophisticated enough to threaten critical infrastructure.

Speaking at the Web Summit conference in Lisbon, the director of the EU agency claimed the financial sector is particularly at risk from crime “conglomerations” with corporate structures, featuring specialized groups.

“What really concerns me is the sophistication of the capability, which is becoming good enough to really threaten parts of our critical infrastructure, certainly in the financial, banking sector,” Wainright told Reuters.

“The real threat comes from a sort of exponential, remorseless increase in the scale and significance of cyber-criminal capability.”

The majority of cyber-criminals Europol faces are Russian speaking, he added.

“There is this sort of cyber-criminal underworld that’s a lot bigger and smarter and adept than most people think,” Wainwright said. “And, against it, we still have generally low cyber security standards.”

Source: infosecurity-magazine.com

Davide Fernandes