It may be rare for the insurance industry to be linked to stories of sex and scandal but two experts in the cyber space suggest an emerging risk is about to make it a lot more common.
Speaking at a recent forum for brokers, Scott Bailey and Gerry Power both said they’d observed a significant increase in the number of incidents or inquiries related to sextortion.
“Sextortion is the sentiment of a hacker actually capturing some sort of webcam footage of a user – perhaps caught in an inappropriate position looking at a website they shouldn’t be – and then using that evidence to extort crypto currency or other means of currency from that individual or company,” explained Bailey, who’s been Merkel International’s MD of cyber for the past six months.
Previous to his current role, Bailey was a senior underwriter and head of emerging risks for Merkel, where he was involved in identifying the latest threats and potential exposures.
“It’s a new one, and it may be a little controversial, but sextortion is definitely one of the emerging trends we’re seeing at the moment,” added Bailey.
Gerry Power, national head of sales for Emergence Insurance, agreed that the issue appeared to be raising its ugly head more often.
“We’re seeing a number of those sextortion type activities where we’re getting phone calls from people who are concerned about what they should do for their next steps,” he said.
However, it seems cyber criminals don’t even need genuine evidence of an individual in a compromising situation – in fact, often the threats are nothing more than hoaxes.
According to a 2019 report by Beazley Breach Response (BBR) Services, emails claiming to have such evidence often contain a link or zip file which they claim is video proof.
However, this actually spreads malware that can steal information or introduce ransomware used by hackers to lock the computer or access data.
While the issue is now posing a major threat, it’s been lurking on the horizon for some time – in fact, the Australian government established the Office of the eSafety Commissioner in 2015 to tackle the growing epidemic.
Just last year, commissioner Julie Inman Grant issued a public warning about a sextortion scam, in which the sender claimed they’d hacked into an individual’s device and recorded intimate footage of them visiting a porn site.
While the claim was fictional, the sender often included a password which the person recognised as a current or former password.
“It’s important to know, this is simply a scam and there is no intimate footage,” Grant said at the time. “Nonetheless, as online crime and sextortion scams become more sophisticated, we want Australians to be aware and to know what to do if they receive a similar email.”
