What is Cybercrime?

What Is Cybercrime?

Cybercrime refers to any criminal activity that involves a computer, network, or digital system as either the tool, target, or both. These crimes can range from data breaches, ransomware attacks, and online fraud to the theft of intellectual property or personal information.

As a global leader in cybercrime prevention and digital risk protection, we encounter this reality every day. The connection between the internet and criminal activity has become deeply embedded; what happens online doesn’t stay online, and the impact is very real.

Through our partnerships with organizations such as INTERPOL and EUROPOL, we’ve seen how cybercrime has evolved into a transnational threat. It’s not just lone hackers anymore. Our Threat Intelligence teams routinely track sophisticated ransomware operations, complex financial fraud schemes, and supply-chain attacks launched by well-organized and well-funded criminal groups.

Based on our extensive investigations, cybercrime manifests in three distinct categories:

• Crimes against individuals: These include identity theft, cyberstalking, and online harassment.
• Crimes against property: Offences in this category cover data breaches, malware attacks, and intellectual property theft.
• Crimes against organizations or governments: Examples of cybercrimes in this group include cyber espionage, ransomware attacks, and hacking.

In the sections that follow, we’ll break down:

• The main types of cybercrime affecting businesses today
• The impact these threats can have on your operations
• How our proven security strategies help defend against them

The Different Types of Cybercrime

Identity theft, phishing attacks, malware, ransomware, cyber espionage, and Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks are the most common types of cybercrimes that businesses face. Below, we’ll explore these kinds of cybercrimes and how they can affect your business:

1. Theft of Identity

Identity theft occurs when hackers steal corporate credentials and sensitive data to impersonate employees or executives. Data leaks are the cause of most of these incidents, and they can put both your business’s and your customers’ private information at risk.

One of the most severe consequences of a cyberattack is the loss of personally identifiable information (PII). This can have serious consequences for businesses, including a damaged reputation and lost sales. The United States, Russia, and India were the three countries with the most data leaks in 2024.

2. Phishing and Spoofing

These methods involve attackers acting like business partners or colleagues you can trust. They use fake emails, messages, and websites to trick you into revealing your passwords, financial information, and other sensitive corporate data. It’s a smart way to access important information by leveraging the trust that exists in professional relationships.

Our Digital Risk Protection service helps you detect and stop advanced phishing attacks before they succeed.

3. Social Engineering

Social engineering fraud occurs when cybercriminals deceive you into providing credentials or sensitive data, thereby gaining access to your organization’s infrastructure. These cyberattacks can be highly specific. C-level executives are often targeted by social engineering fraud through phishing emails, phone scams, and impersonation.

We investigated the ClickFix social engineering technique and found that many cybercriminals use it to lure their victims while evading conventional security measures.

4. Malware

Malware (malicious software) infiltrates systems to steal your data and disrupt operations. Worms, viruses, spyware, and remote access trojans are some of the most common types. Each one is designed to compromise a different aspect of your organization’s security.

5. Ransomware

This particularly disruptive attack encrypts critical files and systems, making them inaccessible to legitimate users. Group-IB’s High-Tech Crime Trends 2025 report indicates that ransomware attacks increased by 10% from 2023, with a notable rise in targeted strikes against manufacturing, real estate, and professional services.

Ransomware can paralyze your business operations and cost you a significant amount of money to recover your data. Our Incident Response team has successfully contained and remediated numerous ransomware attacks across various industries.

6. Cyber Espionage

Cyber espionage refers to the act of gaining unauthorized access to private information, often with the goal of targeting major businesses and government institutions. The primary objective is to gather intelligence that could compromise national security or undermine a company’s competitive advantage.

In 2018, we uncovered leaked credentials of 40,000 users of government websites in more than 30 countries. The information obtained from these accounts could have been misused for illicit purposes and potentially exposed sensitive state secrets.

7. Hacking

Hacking refers to the unauthorized access of computer systems or digital devices, typically with the intention of stealing, manipulating, or destroying sensitive data. While there’s a positive side known as ethical hacking, where experts help organizations identify and rectify vulnerabilities, malicious hacking presents a significant cybersecurity risk.

8. Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) Attacks

DDoS attacks overwhelm networks and servers with massive traffic volumes, disrupting normal operations and blocking legitimate user access. The scale and distributed nature of these attacks make them particularly challenging to defend against.

9. Cryptojacking

Cryptojacking is when someone takes over your computer’s resources to mine cryptocurrency without your knowledge. You might start noticing that your system is running slower than usual or that your energy bills are unexpectedly high before you realize what’s happening.

One way attackers gain access is through a technique known as cloud jacking. They can exploit poorly configured cloud accounts or use stolen API keys to gain access.

Causes of Cybercrime

Several reasons contribute to the growing occurrence of cybercrime today, including inadequate enterprise security measures, financial incentives, and the rise of cybercrime-as-a-service platforms that facilitate malicious activities for individuals.

Our threat intelligence data and reports from Statista, over 30,000 cyber incidents were reported across various industries between November 2022 and October 2023. Let’s take a closer look at some of the main causes of cybercrime:

1. Security System Vulnerabilities

Our security assessments often reveal that organizations lack robust cybersecurity measures, leaving their systems vulnerable to attacks. Weak passwords, outdated software, and poorly configured networks provide easy entry points for cybercriminals.

2. Internet Anonymity

The anonymous nature of the Internet allows criminals to operate undetected. Tools like Tor and Virtual Private Network (VPN) enable perpetrators to mask their identities, making traditional tracking methods ineffective. However, advanced threat intelligence capabilities can often trace these activities.

3. Geographic and Jurisdictional Challenges

Cybercriminals often operate from regions with lax enforcement of cybercrime. The lack of unified international laws and cross-border cooperation creates enforcement gaps that threat actors exploit. In some regions, cybercrime laws are either outdated or poorly enforced, creating a low-risk environment for cybercriminals.

Deglobalization trends make cross-border cybercrime investigations more challenging, as jurisdictional barriers hinder the sharing of intelligence and international collaboration. Through Group-IB’s partnerships with INTERPOL and EUROPOL, we help bridge these jurisdictional gaps to combat cross-border threats.

4. Political Motivations

Hacktivist groups engage in cybercrime to promote various political agendas or disrupt the operations of rival governments. We’ve investigated numerous cases of cyber espionage, election interference, and politically motivated data breaches.

5. Financial Motivation

The promise of financial rewards is a huge motivator for many individuals. Our research indicates that cybercriminals often rake in substantial sums of money through various cyberattacks. This includes investment and real estate scams that trick people out of their hard-earned cash.

6. Access to Cybercrime-as-a-Service (CaaS)

Our research has revealed a growing underground market where CaaS platforms enable even non-technical individuals to purchase ready-made tools, such as ransomware kits and phishing frameworks.

This means that what used to take weeks for them to move laterally or escalate privileges can now happen in just a few days. Even if you remove a key tool, such as a phishing kit or a hosting server, it doesn’t significantly hinder their activities. Cybercriminals can quickly shift to other options and keep their operations running smoothly.

Who Is a Cybercriminal?

Cybercriminals come in various forms, ranging from individual hackers to organized crime rings and even state-sponsored groups. Each of these threat actors brings unique risks that can compromise your organization’s security.

1. Lone Hackers

Independent operators, ranging from curious amateurs to elite experts. Motivations include financial gain, seeking revenge against others, or achieving notoriety. Many specialize in niche exploits, crafting tailored attacks to breach specific systems.

2. Organized Crime Groups

These groups operate large-scale schemes, including credit card fraud, cryptocurrency theft, and CaaS. Notable players, such as DragonForce and Lazarus, are known for infiltrating enterprise networks and supply chains with surgical precision.

3. State-Sponsored Actors

Backed by governments, these actors are the cyber equivalent of black ops. Their targets include national infrastructure, political institutions, and critical industries.

Most attackers have engaged in espionage, sabotage, and information warfare against neighboring countries. One such group is MuddyWater, which we’ve analyzed in the blog, “SimpleHarm: Tracking MuddyWater’s Infrastructure.”

4. Hacktivist Groups

Armed with ideology and keyboards, hacktivists launch attacks to promote political, social, or environmental causes. Common tactics include defacing websites and launching DDoS attacks, causing real disruptions despite their non-commercial motives.

How Cybercrime Impacts Society

Cybercrime is a global threat affecting individuals and enterprises, causing privacy breaches, disruption of critical infrastructure, and substantial financial losses. In fact, the average annual cost of cybercrime is projected to soar to an alarming $23 trillion by 2027.

Our research indicates that phishing attacks have increased by 22% in 2024, with over 80,000 phishing websites currently in operation. We also saw 39 new ransomware-as-a-service (RaaS) groups and 19 dark web forums. In the sections that follow, we’ll dive deeper into the financial impacts of these cybercrimes, as well as the often-overlooked non-financial repercussions they bring.

Financial Consequences

The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI) 2024 Internet Crime Report reported losses exceeding $16 billion (a 33% increase in losses from 2023). The top three cybercrimes were phishing, extortion, and personal data breaches. Fraud victims, specifically those involving cryptocurrency, reported the most losses at nearly $6.5 billion.

The financial impact of cybercrime extends across your organization in multiple ways:

• Immediate Losses: Organizations face immediate financial losses from identity theft, online scams, and ransomware attacks.
• Operational and Regulatory Costs: Beyond direct losses, businesses will incur costs from stolen data, operational downtime, and regulatory fines
• High Costs of Data Breaches: Serious data breaches carry extreme costs—the Equifax data breach in 2017 resulted in over $570 million in settlements

Non-Financial Consequences

In addition to financial losses, cybercrime results in significant non-financial consequences for organizations. These impacts may include damage to critical infrastructure that disrupts essential operations, theft of intellectual property that diminishes your competitive advantage, and reputational damage that can permanently harm your brand value.

We’ll explore these consequences below:

• Emotional Distress and Fear: Your employees and customers may experience anxiety, stress, or fear about potential further breaches, which can impact workplace morale and customer relationships.
• Reputational Damage: Data breaches can shatter your stakeholders’ trust, potentially affecting your organization’s long-term viability.
• Operational Disruptions: DDoS attacks can halt your business operations, significantly reducing productivity.
• Loss of Intellectual Property: Theft of your proprietary data or trade secrets can erode your competitive advantage in the market. Our investigation into the APT group, RedCurl, revealed well-prepared, targeted attacks aimed at stealing confidential information, including business emails, staff records, documents related to various legal entities, and court records. RedCurl’s success indicates that more companies are likely to fall victim to such attacks.
• Damage to Critical Infrastructure: Cyberattacks targeting law enforcement systems and power grids can have far-reaching implications for society, including potential physical harm.

The Future of Cybercrime

Our threat intelligence suggests that the future of cybercrime will likely be shaped by AI technology, cyber warfare, and cloud vulnerabilities. We’ve seen a disturbing rise in automated attacks using AI, as well as more sophisticated ransomware and social engineering tactics that leverage deepfake technology.

Let’s take a closer look at some of the challenges that we might face moving forward:

AI-Powered Attacks and Deepfakes

The same tools that drive human innovation are increasingly being weaponized for cybercrime. AI agents are automating attacks from initial reconnaissance to exploitation, as documented in our recent investigation into mass-scale card testing attacks. Combined with automated vulnerability scanning, these technologies shrink detection windows and increase attack volumes, outpacing traditional defenses.

The 2024 IMF Global Financial Stability Report predicts an increase in cyber risks associated with AI technologies, particularly in the generation of fraud. We’ve observed cybercriminals using AI-generated images, face-swapping tools, and deepfake technology to conduct highly convincing deepfake fraud.

Deepfakes can lead to fraudulent transactions, manipulated stock prices, or an erosion of trust in financial institutions, triggering selloffs or deposit runs. Critical financial markets or information technology infrastructure are the most at risk. In 2024, a finance worker at a Hong Kong-based multinational firm was tricked by an AI-generated deepfake video and audio, resulting in a $25 million payout to fraudsters.

Cryptocurrency and Money Laundering

Cryptocurrencies and decentralized finance (DeFi) platforms have become preferred cash-out channels for cybercriminals. We’ve observed an increased trend in fraudsters funneling ransom payouts and other proceeds through privacy mixers, stablecoins such as USDT, and high-speed decentralized exchanges (DEXs).

Although blockchains are public ledgers, conventional anti-money laundering (AML) tools lose visibility once the funds are moved on the chain. Tracing these funds then requires specialised blockchain analytics tools or subpoenas to regulated exchanges, making attribution difficult in many cases.

Strengthening AML defenses through early mule detection capabilities can help close this gap by flagging suspicious fiat on-ramps and mule accounts during the warm-up phase, allowing you to proactively block or restrict accounts before they are used for money laundering.

Expanded Cloud and IoT Attack Surfaces

Hybrid working arrangements, widespread cloud adoption, and the rise of connected IoT devices have expanded the attack surface for cybercriminals, exposing businesses to more complex and large-scale threats.

Our investigations show that many organizations continue to struggle with mismanaged cloud infrastructure, exposed SaaS tokens, and insecure firmware. Deploying an Attack Surface Management solution can help identify all IT devices, software, and services in your organization that pose security risks.

For added protection against security breaches, advanced detection solutions, such as Threat Intelligence, can map and analyze information about potential threats to your assets. It helps your security team to regularly check for leaked employee logins, email addresses, and passwords in public GitHub repositories.

Growing Cybercrime Ecosystems

The proliferation of malware-as-a-service platforms, initial-access brokers, and phishing-as-a-service (PhaaS) toolkits is lowering the entry barrier for cybercriminals.

As published in our Intelligence Insights (June 2025), we tracked the activities of the threat actor, Machine 1337, who continues to sell new batches of stolen messages related to various popular online services on dark web forums.

Cybercriminal supply chains are moving at a pace that traditional security measures can’t keep up with. We also observed that the number of corporate credentials harvested by the “Acreed” infostealer increased by more than 204 times in May.

Protection Against Cybercrime

Keeping your organization safe from cyberattacks means implementing some key security measures that focus on technology, your team, and third-party risks.

Relying on isolated controls is no longer sufficient. Instead, adopting a defense-in-depth strategy that includes strengthening identity protection, rapid patching, and real-time monitoring will help your organization build resilience against emerging cyber threats.

The following steps can significantly reduce your risk and tackle common vulnerabilities we’ve seen in our investigations.

1. Identity and Access Management (IAM)

Implement robust identity and access management (IAM) policies to safeguard your employees’ digital identities and secure their access to systems. First, secure every login with multi-factor authentication (MFA) via an authenticator app or a FIDO2 key, especially those with privileged accounts. Next, assign least-privilege roles and set automatic expiry dates for any temporary access.

2. Patch Management

Regular updates to your operating systems, applications, and antivirus software are crucial for patching vulnerabilities that cybercriminals may exploit. Align your cloud configurations with established benchmarks, such as NIST standards. Integrate thorough vulnerability scanning of third-party libraries into your CI/CD processes to identify and mitigate security risks prior to deployment. Rather than manually configuring systems, your IT team can automate remediation through infrastructure-as-code pipelines.

3. Continuous Monitoring and Rapid Response

Establish comprehensive visibility by streaming logs from endpoints, networks, and SaaS applications into your Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) solution. Implement automated alerts for unusual login attempts or suspicious transactions. Our Managed XDR platform enables you to combine advanced behavioral analytics with real-time threat intelligence, facilitating proactive threat detection and expedited incident response.

4. User-Centric Email Security

Protect your email traffic with an advanced Business Email Protection solution to automatically detect and block all email-borne attacks, from spam and phishing attempts to malware delivery and business email compromise (BEC) attacks. Provide your employees with security awareness training and establish official channels for verifying the authenticity of communications that request sensitive information.

5. High-Tech Cybercrime Investigation Services

Actively investigating cyber threats helps you identify vulnerabilities in your systems and understand potential attack methods and motivations. Our cyber investigation services help protect your digital assets and reputation through proactive threat hunting and response.

The Role of Governments and Organizations

Governments and international organizations play a crucial role in combating cybercrime by establishing cybersecurity laws and implementing collaborative initiatives. Our partnerships with INTERPOL, EUROPOL, and other law enforcement agencies strengthen efforts to protect businesses from malicious activities.

These regulations, combined with global partnerships and intelligence sharing, help create a more secure digital environment:

• Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA): Enacted in the United States in 1986, this cybersecurity bill prohibits hacking or unauthorized access to computer systems. It targets both individual hackers and organized cybercrime groups, providing your business with legal protection against digital threats.
• General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR): This European Union law mandates stringent data protection measures and transparency for users. Non-compliance can result in fines of up to €10 million, making it essential for your organization to maintain robust data protection practices.
• Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act (CISA): CISA promotes collaboration between the private sector and government entities in sharing threat intelligence. This framework enables us to assist businesses in strengthening their defenses by providing timely information about emerging vulnerabilities.

Major Cybercrime Incidents and Lessons Learned

Utilizing the latest threat intelligence software, we’ve helped to dismantle numerous cybercriminal networks and hold cybercriminals accountable. Our investigations have also provided valuable insight into how modern threat actors operate and how they can be stopped.

The following operations serve as striking examples of cybercrime, offering important lessons for organizations and cybersecurity professionals.

Operation Lyrebird

We collaborated with INTERPOL on Operation Lyrebird, an investigation that disrupted the activities of the alleged Moroccan cybercriminal, known as “Dr. Hex.” They were responsible for over a decade of cybercrimes, including phishing, website defacement, and malware distribution, targeting financial institutions and multinational corporations.

With the help of our advanced tools and experienced cybersecurity experts, Moroccan police uncovered their identity and arrested them in 2021.

Lessons learned:

• Continuous infrastructure mapping and threat correlation help defenders attribute attacks and prevent new waves.
• Your first line of defense against phishing and scam attacks is to secure corporate email on-premises and in the cloud with advanced features, such as customized anti-evasion detonation.
• Maintain close partnerships with law enforcement agencies and private sector intelligence teams to leverage vast threat intelligence databases.

Operation Serengeti

In 2024, we participated in “Operation Serengeti,” which involved online scams, ransomware attacks, and digital extortion across Africa. Our partnership with INTERPOL AND AFRIPOL resulted in the destruction of 134,089 malicious infrastructure and the arrest of more than a thousand threat actors after financial losses of over $190 million worldwide.

Lessons learned:

• Companies operating globally must adjust their defensive strategies to adapt to regional threats by employing strategies such as risk assessments and rapid response.
• Understanding threat trends specific to your industry helps you anticipate cyberattacks behind coordinated fraud campaigns through real-time insights into threat actors and their infrastructure.
• An advanced digital risk protection platform protects your business against digital risks outside your company’s perimeter by continuously monitoring for any mentions of your brand across a range of open and dark web sources.

Discover what threats to watch for in your region in this visual datasheet on the Digital Risk Highlights for 2025.

Europol’s Digital Skimming Action

In 2023, we participated in Europol’s Digital Skimming Action, a cybercrime-fighting operation that involved local authorities from 17 countries and other private agencies. We investigated digital skimming patterns and enabled the team to unveil 443 compromised online merchants.

We provided valuable insights into detecting JavaScript sniffers, which are malware variants used to collect sensitive data from compromised e-commerce sites.

Lessons learned:

• Adding a client-side security layer, such as Content Security Policy (CSP) or Sub-Resource Integrity (SRI), enables you to block tampering and mitigate risks, including cross-site scripting (XSS) attacks.
• Move card entry off your site to a PCI-certified payment field to prevent attacks targeting customer data. If you process in-house, schedule quarterly penetration tests, and plug gaps with endpoint detection and response (EDR) solutions.
• Automatically isolate threats as soon as they are detected by forwarding the latest indicators of compromise (IOCs) to your web-application firewall and SIEM.

How Group-IB Protects Your Business from Cybercrime

Cyber risks are on the rise, but the most resilient organizations are staying ahead by combining real-time threat intelligence, advanced monitoring, early detection, and rapid incident response. At Group‑IB, we offer intelligence‑driven products and services powered by the Unified Risk Platform.

Threat Intelligence feeds live adversary data into every module, from Attack Surface Management and Digital Risk Protection to Managed XDR, feeding risk scores and giving fewer false alerts to chase

This integration enables your security team to detect threats as they emerge, correlate external signals with internal telemetry, and automate responses across email, endpoints, and cloud infrastructure. Centralized dashboards make it easier to monitor your risk posture and demonstrate security ROI at every level.

If you’ve already experienced an attack, our 24/7 incident response services and deep investigative expertise help contain, investigate, and remediate the threat before cybercriminals can compromise your systems and data.

Ready to protect your organization with industry-leading cybersecurity solutions? Get in touch with our experts today for a demo of how these capabilities come together in practice.