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New Board Members of the Anti-Phishing Working Group Join the Fight Against Attacks on US Democracy and $3B in Internet Crime Business LossesThe Anti-Phishing Working Group (APWG) is pleased to announce the appointment of three new members to its Board of Directors. Brad Wardman, PhD. of PayPal, Dave Piscitello of ICANN, and Pat Cain of The Cooper Cain Group have joined the APWG Board of Directors. These board members join David Jevans and Peter Cassidy to expand the board to five members, all experts and practitioners in defending against Internet crime and identity theft. The expansion of the APWG board to include additional members, with specialist knowledge of and experience with investigating and fighting cybercrime, is recognition of the growing complexity and scale of Internet crime today and the challenges in responding to this global threat. Phishing Attacks Affected The 2016 US Presidential Election APWG Chairman David Jevans said "Internet crime and phishing has impacted democracy in the 2016 US Presidential elections with the DNC email hacking, and allegations of Russian hacking influencing the US elections. Phishing attacks were the way that these attacks originated." Mr. Jevans continued, "We are thrilled to have these three experts join the Board of Directors of APWG. Together, we will help over 2,000 member companies and government agencies worldwide to develop policy, best practices and data sharing to protect millions of people from these insidious attacks." Phishing Against Businesses Exploded in 2016, and Billions of Dollars Were Stolen The new board members could not have arrived at a more portentous moment. 2016 saw an unprecedented increase in the sophistication of email phishing targeting businesses and ransomware. Business Email Compromise (BEC) phishing, also know as CEO phishing or impostor email, is a new scheme costing companies around the world billions of dollars by targeting enterprises' operational authorities (e.g. comptroller, administrator) and executives (e.g. CEO, CFO). Ransomware attacks are equally pernicious attacks that target every Internet user: victims of ransomware phishing email unintentionally install encrypting malware on their computers and are then coerced into paying a ransom to criminals to recover (decrypt) their data. BEC phishing is estimated by the FBI to have cost businesses 3 Billion dollars by the end of 2016. Company executives and finance staff are tricked into making large payments to bank accounts controlled by attacking imposters. These attacks have ranged in size from $20,000 to more than $100 Million dollars per occurrence. Ransomware is estimated to have cost users nearly $1 Billion in 2016 alone! Expanding the Board of Directors of APWG Recognizing its responsibilities for expanding the operational capabilities of the APWG, the institution has expanded its board of directors with sector-leading directors of global repute, influence and authority who can help guide the organization in its next stage of growth. The new members of the Board of Directors of APWG are: Brad Wardman, Head of Threat Intelligence at PayPal, serves as chairman of the APWG Symposium on Electronic Crime Research. Brad is deeply versed in detecting, tracking, and fighting cybercrime, with a publication record that has pioneered ground-breaking discussions on cybercrime detection and mitigation. Brad is the inventor of 7 issued security patents and has filed an additional 10 patents with the US Patent Office. Dave Piscitello, Vice President Security and ICT Coordination at ICANN, is an Associate Fellow at the Geneva Centre for Security Policy. Mr. Piscitello has over 35 years of experience in information communications and technology, cyber security, and cybercrime investigations. At ICANN, he and his team coordinate global collaborative efforts by security, operations and law enforcement communities to mitigate Domain Name System abuse and malicious uses of Domain names for the Internet. Mr. Piscitello represents ICANN in global cybersecurity forums, including the Commonwealth Cybercrime Initiative and the OECD Security Experts Group. Pat Cain, CEO Cooper Cain Group, is a Resident Research Fellow of the Anti-Phishing Working Group (APWG), and President of The Cooper-Cain Group, a Boston, Massachusetts, USA based Internet security consultancy. He has been involved in information security development and operations for over thirty years and drives APWG's data policy initiatives. He is a Certified Information Systems Auditor (CISA), a Certified Information System Manager (CISM) and an associate member of the American Bar Association. Mr. Cain led an effort in the IETF to standarize phishing and electronic crime reports (RFC 5901), participates in many data-sharing initiatives, has served on a United Nations identity-related crimes experts panel, and is an observer to the Cybercrime Convention Committee (T-CY) of the Council of Europe. APWG Information Sharing and Analysis The APWG eCrime Exchange (eCX) is a non-profit Information Sharing and Analysis Center (ISAC) that allows members to securely share attack information in real time. Today the APWG eCX is sharing 200 million records per month. These include phishing sites, malicious IP addresses and criminal Bitcoin addresses and transactions. APWG members can join the eCX to securely exchange threat information with other members. APWG Electronic Crime and Research Conferences In 2006, APWG established the peer-reviewed Symposium on Electronic Crime Research for original research in the field. In 2009, APWG proposed a global consumer messaging convention for a public cybersecurity awareness program, today curated by APWG and Washington, D.C.-based National Cyber Security Alliance as the STOP. THINK. CONNECT.™ campaign, now active in fourteen countries with dozens more national deployments in development. With more than 2,000 institutional members worldwide, APWG is regarded by industry, governments worldwide and international treaty organizations as the leading NGO fighting cybercrime. APWG holds conferences around the globe, bringing cyber-crime and security experts together to focus on new solutions to cybercrime. APWG's directors, managers and research fellows consult with treaty organizations such as the European Commission, the G8 High Technology Crime Subgroup, Council of Europe, United Nations ODC, OSCE, Europol EC3, Commonwealth of Nations, governance bodies like the OECD, ITU and ICANN as well as national governments in all hemispheres. APWG Secretary General and co-founder Peter Cassidy said, "Cybercrime requires a new kind of technical diplomacy and vision to animate globally effective responses. To continue to develop the kind of response mechanisms that APWG deploys requires an expanded board, populated by persons with insight into the parts of the problem that are shared by all stakeholders. With Mssrs. Cain, Piscitello and Wardman, all of us are closer to imagining and establishing new universalized responses to cybercrime and establish conventions for the suppression of these now predictable risks." About the APWG The APWG, founded in 2003 as the Anti-Phishing Working Group, is a global industry, law enforcement, and government coalition of more than 2,000 institutions working to unify the global response to electronic crime. Membership is open to qualified financial institutions, online retailers, ISPs and Telcos, the law enforcement community, solutions providers, multi-lateral treaty organizations, research centers, trade associations and government agencies. The APWG's <www.apwg.org> and <education.apwg.org> websites offer the public, industry and government agencies practical information about phishing and electronically mediated fraud as well as pointers to pragmatic technical solutions that provide immediate protection. APWG is co-founder and co-manager of the STOP. THINK. CONNECT. Messaging Convention, the global online safety public awareness collaborative <https://education.apwg.org/safety-messaging-convention/> and founder/curator of the Symposium on Electronic Crime Research, the world's first peer-reviewed conference dedicated specifically to electronic crime studies <www.ecrimeresearch.org>. Among APWG's corporate sponsors include: AhnLab, Area 1 Security, AT&T (T), Afilias Ltd., Avast!, AVG Technologies, Axur, Baidu Antivirus, Bangkok Bank, BBN Technologies, Barracuda Networks, BillMeLater, Bkav, Blue Coat, BrandMail, BrandProtect, Bsecure Technologies, CSC Digital Brand Services, Check Point Software Technologies, Claro (News - Alert), Cloudmark, Comcast, CSIRTBANELCO, Cyber Defender, CYREN, Cyveillance, DNS Belgium, DigiCert, Domain Tools, Donuts, Duo Security, Easy Solutions, PayPal, eCert, EC Cert, ESET, EST Soft, Facebook, FeelSafe Digital, FEBRABAN, Fortinet, FraudWatch International, F-Secure, GetResponse, GlobalSign, GoDaddy, Google, GroupIB, Hauri, Hitachi Systems, Ltd., Huawei, ICANN, Infoblox (News - Alert), IronPort (Cisco), ING Bank, Infoblox, Intel (INTC), Interac, Internet.bs, IT Matrix, iThreat Cyber Group, iZOOlogic, KnowBe4, LaCaixa, Lenos Software, LookingGlass, MX Tools, MailChannels, MailJet, MailChimp, MailShell, MarkMonitor, Melbourne IT, MessageLevel, Microsoft (News - Alert) (MSFT), MicroWorld, Mimecast, Mirapoint, NHN, NZRS, MyPW, nProtect Online Security, Netcraft, Network Solutions, NeuStar, Nominet, Nominum, NZRS Limited, Public Interest Registry, Panda Software, Phishlabs, PhishMe, Planty.net, Prevalent, Prevx, Proofpoint (News - Alert) (PFPT), RSA Security (EMC), Rakuten, Return Path, RiskIQ, RuleSpace, SalesForce, SecureBrain, SendGrid, S21sec, SIDN, SilverPop, SiteLock, SnoopWall, SoftForum, SoftLayer, SoftSecurity, SOPHOS, SunTrust, SurfControl, Symantec (News - Alert) (SYMC), Tagged, TDS Telecom, Telefonica (TEF), ThreatSTOP, TransCreditBank, Trend Micro (TMIC), Trustwave, Vasco (VDSI), VADE-RETRO, VeriSign, Wombat Security Technologies, Yahoo! (YHOO), and zvelo.
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