The past few years have seen an exponential rise in cybersecurity threats, particularly cybercrime-as-a-service.

This refers to a business model in which cyberattack services are offered to customers by skilled individuals.

Many tactics, particularly cyber ‘phishing’, are being increasingly used to scam and hack targets, both individuals and organisations.

Phishing is an attempt by cybercriminals posing as legitimate institutions, usually via email, to obtain sensitive information from targeted individuals.

Cybersecurity expert at ESET Ireland George Foley told The Pat Kenny Show that cybercrime has become increasingly accessible in the past few years.

“A decade ago, you would have had to have intentions and a bit of skill – these days you just need bad intentions and a bit of money in your pocket,” he said.

“You can essentially hire services from a simple DDOS attack for example, if you wanted to flood someone’s website with network traffic so it would cease operating, to really advanced malware attacks such as ransomware for seemingly not a lot of money.”

Main image: A computer hacker