Hari Ravichandran is the CEO and Founder of Aura™, a leading provider of comprehensive digital security solutions for consumers.
getty
In today’s digital age, getting scammed online is more common than ever. It is so common, in fact, that an entire economy has flourished around it, built with fraudulent transactions, hacked accounts and stolen passwords. Even more concerning, it’s evolved as far as mimicking popular business models like SaaS (software as a service).
A current trend we’re seeing is PhaaS—phishing as a service. Through this model, hackers license prebuilt phishing kits as subscription services that act as out-of-the-box solutions for amateur hackers, effectively lowering the barrier to entry into this lucrative underground industry. Recent research found that the discourse around and purchasing of PhaaS kits surges in the months leading up to the holiday season. This could be one of the reasons why we see an uptick in phishing scams during the holidays, especially when underground forums are ripe with tactical discussions and dark web markets offer Black Friday deals.
While the U.S. government makes progress on shutting down cyberattack-for-hire services—like the recent crackdown on DDos websites (registration required)—these types of innovations invariably adapt and evolve beyond our ability to keep up, impacting us in a variety of ways. According to the Identity Theft Resource Center (ITRC), social media account takeovers increased by…
