Economy criminal hackers

They are cyber criminals who aim to obtain illicit economic benefits from victims, mainly using extortion strategies and computer fraud. Cryptocurrencies, such as bitcoin, make it difficult to identify the beneficiaries of transactions, contributing to the growth of this form of crime.

The extortion strategy

Economy criminal hackers use ransomware to encrypt victims' data and demand a ransom in cryptocurrency to restore it. They also use the double extortion technique, threatening to disclose the data obtained on the dark web to damage the victims' reputation. They may also threaten to contact the victim's customers or business partners to increase pressure on the organization. In some cases, they also use DDoS attacks to overload the victim's servers.

The fraud strategy

Economy criminal hackers try to deceive victims, often by impersonating trusted people or organizations, in order to induce them to carry out actions that cause serious economic losses. They use attack tactics based on human psychology, exploiting people's vulnerability in the face of elements they recognize as familiar. These cyber scams focus on deception and do not necessarily involve direct contact between scammer and victim.

Differences between extortion strategy and fraud strategy

In the extortion strategy, attackers use deception as a means to accomplish their ultimate goal, which is to take the victim's data or systems hostage. In the fraud strategy, however, deception is the main element, without which the attack cannot be completed. This distinction between the two strategies allows us to distinguish between extortion and fraudulent attacks, regardless of the means used in the attack.