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Phishing and vishing scam attacks have increased by around 300pc
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Wexford Garda Station.
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David Looby
The Cyber Crime Hub in Wexford is one of four newly established hubs – all managed by the national bureau hub in Dublin which has a staff of around 50.
The Wexford unit operates differently to the normal garda divisional model.
“We are trying to improve the national footprint of the national cyber crime hub. We get cases from Waterford, Wicklow, Wexford,” said Detective Sgt Eoin O’Connell.
The Wexford unit has five sergeants who deal with cyber enabled crimes – crimes assisted by technology or devices, or are online or cyber dependent; crimes which have to happen online or in some form of media.
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“We have top of the line, cutting edge technology equipment resources. There has been a big investment in it nationally. For the day to day guards, there are some limitations that they would have, that we wouldn’t have from a resource point of view because our resource are specific for forensic examinations that they wouldn’t need.”
Sgt O’Connell said Covid forced everyone online and people who weren’t prepared to be online or who had never been online before. “The elderly, the vulnerable had to do their banking and shopping online and that opened up avenues for attack by bad actors or threat actors and also businesses. People had to work and use devices from home.”
Wexford gardaí saw an increase in targeted attacks through using private devices on home networks.
Phishing and vishing scam attacks have increased by around 300pc, according to international reports over the past three years.
“That would be Covid. We see the amount of texts coming through. They can be very advanced. The one at the moment that’s catching people is pretending the HSE, close contact Covid notification. I’m not aware of any data being taken.”
Data is king for the cyber criminal.
“They’re looking for addresses, PPS numbers. In the most extreme cases they’re looking for your banking details, but people are being more and more protective of their banking details but they’re willing to throw out dates of birth and PPS numbers, which enables them to set up fraudulent IDs, fraudulent addresses, sign up for different accounts.”
The individual might never see the impact of giving out this information but the criminals are getting benefit from it in some way.
“You see how much information is sold online and accounts are hacked for millions.”
There were 672 cases closed by the bureau nationally in 2022. 478 new referrals also, six of which were ransomware attacks. Of those cases around 60pc involved child sexual abuse material.
“Since I have arrived here we are seeing the national figures reflected locally as well. I think Wexford is blessed to have only one of four cyber crime hubs nationally and I am willing to talk to anyone who has any concerns.”
Sgt O’Connell, who has a Masters in forensic cyber crime, said the biggest problem gardaí are encountering are the more complex forms of encryption and cloud based storage solutions.
“A lot of the exhibits we get are seized exhibits as part of an investigation and they come to us as part of a forensic investigation. To examine them we have to gain access to them in a forensic manner that guarantees the integrity of the data, but also meets the burden of criminal proof.”
This happens in cases of frauds and harassment cases also.
“More and more the bad actor is tech savvy but also devices come with more and more encryption, like Windows 11. It’s very time consuming. We do have the resources to brute force encryption. It’s also hard to put your hands on the data if it’s in a cloud and by the time we get the device the data could have been moved or deleted.”
Sgt O’Connell gives talks regularly, including to ISME in New Ross last year. “Think before you click is the key advice.”
He said Invoice Redirection Fraud Schemes have become more common and Wexford business owners need to be aware of the risks.
“In businesses you need to have a policy in place where you are training your staff. For people who get a link, take a second. Don’t click it straight away.”
Gardaí work with the National Centre for Cyber Security and Europol, and Sgt O’Connell was involved in the Cyber Security awareness Month in October.
This year’s campaign concerned ransomware and phishing.
“The Cyrberskills.ie website has a check my link facility to identify scams. No bank or business will send you a link to click in looking for your details. By being online we do expose a lot of ourselves though social media: Facebook, Instagram. It’s just to be aware of how much of ourselves we’re putting out there; our digital footprint.”
He said homes were burgled on the back of people posting airport pics of themselves on Facebook ahead of taking a flight to a holiday.
He also advises people not to post photos of their children wearing a school uniform with a crest on it as this identifies the school to potential bad actors, or photos outside your house with the house number viewable or photos of a new car’s reg.
“It’s amazing how much information you can actually give. There is a tendency for people to show off online. That’s where we’re seeing the change in ransomware and phishing attacks, through the social engineering of the suspect.”
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