Position Paper 2 | Cybersecurity: Cybercrime and Global Cybersecurity Trends

Cybercrime is a significant and rapidly growing problem across the world. Cybercrime is a threat to the personal information kept on home devices as well as business and corporate databases. Cybercrime is a growing threat to national and economic security that only successful international cooperation can mend. 

Cybercriminals are experts of intentional destruction and theft that are the masters of avoiding consequences. Cybercriminals can be in any country, a part of any cybercrime group that cybersecurity forces may not even be able to pinpoint. The World Cybercrime Index (WCI) was released in April 2024 by Oxford University and UNSW Canberra. This is a recent and popular attempt at mapping the global geography of cybercrime, exploiting the anonymity of cybercriminals.  

The World Cybercrime Index is a chart with rankings of countries based on their involvement with global cybercrime. Although it is basically impossible to find the exact location of cybercriminals, WCI offers ratings on the trendiest cybercrime, how impactful cybercrime is in a specific country, how professional and technically skilled their cybercriminals, etc. 

Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL) encourages nations to use legal existing tools that are dedicated to promoting international standards and cooperation to fight cybercrimes, such as the Council of Europe Convention on Cybercrime (also known as the Budapest Convention), the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime (UNTOC), and 24/7 Network Points of Contact. The Budapest Convention was the first international treaty to meet these standards of cybersecurity and has successfully improved the capacity of the international community that makes a point to respond to cybercrime. The INL's ultimate goal is to strengthen internal law enforcement cooperation alongside identifying global "weak links" that can be exploited by cybercriminals. These international forces are extremely helpful as officials are always in need of extra help tracking down attackers.

Gartner identifies the Top Cybersecurity Trends for 2025

Analysts to Explore Cybersecurity Tends During Gartner Security & Risk Management Summit, March 3-4 in Sydney

Gartner, Inc. is a website that delivers actionable, objective insight to executives and their teams. This includes Cybercrime and worldwide cybersecurity forces, in which Gartner recently determined that the top cybersecurity trends of this year are influenced by generative AI evolution, digital decentralizing, regulatory change, and supply chain interdependencies. 

• Trend 1: GenAI Driving Data Security Programs (Almost all security protection efforts and financial resources are focused on protecting structured databases.)
• Trend 2: Managing Machine Identities (Increasing adoption of GenAI has led to prolific use of machine accounts and credentials for physical devices and software workloads. If information or a database is left uncontrolled and unmanaged, machine identities can significantly expand an organization's attack surface.)
• Trend 3: Tactical AI (These are more tactical implementations that align AI practices and tools with existing metrics.)
• Trend 4: Cybersecurity Technology Optimization (This is Gartner's recommendation for a balance between security architects, security engineers, and other stakeholders to be satisfied and maintain the right security posture.)
• Trend 5: Extending Security Behavior and Culture Program Value (This trend has gained popularity due to the (currently) increasing recognition that both good and bad human behavior are critical take effect in cybersecurity.)
• Trend 6:  Addressing Cybersecurity Burnout (This is mostly a concern for forces that are already impacted by systemic skill shortage.)

Cybersecurity is effective to all worlds and all people: global corporations, governments, small businesses, large businesses, schools, and more. No one is exempt from cybersecurity as it has outraged into a problem with a demand for international assistance.