The rapid growth of Internet of Things over the last few years and the working from home culture over the last 12 months as a result of Covid-19 have both contributed to the booming of the cybereconomy. People, however, have become too dependent on cyber information with often disastrous consequences as on the cyberspace neither the information is necessarily genuine nor is the source reliable. The banking sector has been leading the field with reporting the exponential growth in all forms of digital crime across the entire world that ranges from hacking, identity theft, malware, monetary extortion, spamming just to name a few. And despite the best advice and protection available, people keep falling victim to cybercriminals as their habits shift to 24/7 online banking, shopping, services and IoT apps. The proliferation of the dark web is also helping cybercrime and the underground economy flourish as a new form of industry. Targets include cars, smart phones, personal computers and any IoT device that is connected and markets range from mass markets like general shopping and banking to niche markets such as healthcare, public sector services and education. As with the software industry, the malware industry uses programs that can circumvent new detection techniques and will use social engineering through phishing, pharming, pop-ups or fake websites for financial gain In order to avoid tracking the cybercriminals use cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, Litecoin, Ethereum or Zcash which in turn is helping the underground economy thrive.
The primary motivation behind this research is to address monetization that results from cyberattacks by developing a smart middleware app that will minimize the risks from a cyberattack such as phishing and pharming and in turn will also learn from the process through the application of machine learning. The secondary motivation is to develop a framework of best practice in minimizing the risks and impact from cyberattacks.
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