There are currently few things that worry CEOs worldwide as much as geopolitics. Cybersecurity is undoubtedly one of them. But what happens when you combine geopolitical conflicts and cyber threats?
Geopolitical cyber threats, that’s what.
This lethal combination threatens to disrupt economies, destabilize governments, and shatter global stability. That’s why it must be met with an ironclad cybersecurity strategy.
But what does that strategy entail?
That’s for Tom Vazdar and Venicia Solomons to answer. Tom is the chair of the Master’s Degree in Enterprise Cybersecurity program at the Open Institute of Technology (OPIT). Venicia is a seasoned cybersecurity architect and advocate who has rightfully earned the nickname “the Cyber Queen.”
Here’s what these two esteemed cyber professionals have to say about geopolitical cyber threats in their highly informative master class titled “Cyber Threat Landscape 2024: Navigating New Risks.”
What Are Geopolitical Cyber Threats?
Geopolitical threats refer to cyberattacks (or campaigns) driven by political motives. These attacks are often conducted by state-sponsored actors and have a specific strategic goal in mind.
For instance, Iran-backed hackers have recently been targeting U.S. water systems, aiming to disrupt Israeli-made equipment globally. This example also perfectly illustrates the targets of geopolitical cyberattacks – critical infrastructure, government systems, military networks, and other relevant entities.
But don’t jump to conclusions – the private sector isn’t immune to such attacks.
Cybercriminals have also targeted private companies to steal intellectual property, disrupt operations, or extort money. However, what differentiates these attacks from other cyberattacks is the motivation behind them.
Whether it’s through espionage, sabotage, or disinformation, geopolitical cyber threats always aim to achieve a political or strategic advantage for the attacker.
How Do State-Sponsored Cyber Threats Differ From Other Cyberattacks?
In their master class, Tom and Venicia specifically focus on state-sponsored cyber threats, even though they aren’t the only type of geopolitical cyber threats. Why? Because they’re the most advanced and sophisticated cyber threats.
As Venicia puts it, state-sponsored cyberattacks involve “specialist hacking techniques,” “stealthy behavior,” and “stealthy execution.” That’s why the consequences of these attacks are often only seen after significant damage has been done.
This leads us to another distinctive characteristic of state-sponsored cyberattacks – they typically involve long-term execution.
You see, other forms of cyberattacks usually want to reach their goal as soon as possible. For instance, a ransomware attack will infiltrate your system, and the hacker will ask for ransom straight away.
A state-sponsored cyberattack, on the other hand, usually plays the long game. That’s why they’re considered an advanced persistent threat (APT). Remaining undetected for a long time allows these threats to collect lots of critical data and perform long-term espionage.
Tom adds that the goal of these cyberattacks is another important distinction. As mentioned, they usually have a strategic goal in mind. “Regular” cyber threats, in contrast, typically only aim for financial profit.
Why Is Geopolitical Cybersecurity Important?
For the most part, traditional warfare was limited to three battlefields – the land, the air, and the sea. However, as Tom points out, two vital battlefields have joined the fray – space and cyberspace.
Sure, threats in cyberspace aren’t overtly visible like those on land, air, or sea. However, they can be just as devastating, if not more so – especially if they’re geopolitical cyber threats.
Here’s how Tom and Venicia break down the importance of geopolitical cybersecurity.
Protecting Against Espionage
As mentioned, espionage is one of the leading types of geopolitical cyberattacks. Since espionage aims to collect as much valuable information as possible, these attacks are typically highly refined, which allows them to remain undiscovered for months on end.
Venicia points out that the recent geopolitical tensions have led to increased cyber espionage. That’s what makes solid geopolitical cybersecurity more important than ever. Let one intruder into your network, and you’re essentially giving away all your classified information (past, present, and future).
Avoiding Manipulation
2024 is an election year. This means that “influence operations, disinformation operations, [and] deep fake operations” will run more rampant than ever, as Tom warns. Ultimately, these operations aim to shape public opinion and undermine trust in democratic institutions. These outcomes are never desirable, let alone during such a crucial time.
That’s where cybersecurity comes into play.
These measures help secure digital platforms, detect (and remove) false information, and (in this specific scenario) safeguard electoral systems.
Protecting the Economy
As mentioned, geopolitical cyberattacks aren’t typically done for financial gain. However, they can still cause massive financial losses. How? By targeting “public organizations and private entities that make a large contribution to a country’s economy,” as Venicia explains.
And a world that’s still reeling from the effects the COVID-19 pandemic had on the global economy can’t possibly handle another major disruption. That’s why any similar threat should never be taken lightly.
How to Combat Geopolitical Cyber Threats
Now that you know why geopolitical cyber threats must be combatted, let’s discuss how this can be done.
Keep All Aspects in Mind
There are numerous factors that go into protecting against geopolitical cyber threats. But for this protection to actually work, all these factors must be considered when devising a defense strategy.
For starters, this means protecting all critical infrastructure sectors. Tom lists just some of them –financial services, healthcare and public health, and transportation systems. However, one thing applies to all critical infrastructure sectors – they aren’t “independent islands,” as Tom puts it.
They’re all part of a larger ecosystem.
Each sector can only be protected if there’s a holistic approach to cybersecurity, one that considers interdependencies between sectors and the potential cascading effects of cyber disruptions. This way, in case of a cyberattack, every sector can provide support and respond effectively to minimize the impact.
Foster Collaboration
The collaborative approach shouldn’t only apply to critical infrastructure sectors. All stakeholders, including government agencies, cybersecurity experts, and the private sector, must work together to address geopolitical threats effectively.
This collaboration can take many forms.
However, Tom highlights the three most important ones on the global level – sharing intelligence, developing international norms and agreements, and establishing cybersecurity alliances.
Our experts list some of the most useful alliances and resources in this regard:
- The No More Ransom Project helps organizations combat ransomware attacks by providing decryption keys, thus returning their vital information.
- Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs) worldwide allow for sharing cyber threat intelligence among industry partners to improve defenses collectively.
- The Budapest Convention on Cybercrime sets out international standards for combating cybercrime, promoting cooperation among countries to tackle cyber threats effectively.
Focus on Critical Infrastructure
By now, one thing’s clear – protecting critical infrastructure against geopolitical cyber threats is paramount.
According to Tom, collaboration plays a key role here as well. In his words, “The only way to protect [critical infrastructure] is that collaborative effort between government and the private sector because they cannot go without each other; they have to work together.”
Implement a Robust Cybersecurity Framework
A comprehensive and collaborative approach to combating geopolitical threats is just the preamble. The implementation of a robust cybersecurity framework is where the actual protection starts. Of course, these systems should be based on the intelligence collected through collaboration and education.
However, the system itself is just as important. After all, protecting critical infrastructure and other elements of similar importance requires more than just traditional anti-virus software!
According to Tom, a comprehensive cybersecurity framework will comprise four elements – threat detection, response tools, regular security assessments, and training. The specifics will vary by organization, and every relevant employee should be familiar with them.
Tom also emphasizes the importance of adopting a multi-layer approach to cybersecurity defenses. This way, even if one layer is breached, others will provide protection and prevent a total collapse of the system.
Stay Vigilant
Organizations should always be on the lookout for an uptick in suspicious activities, especially during times of geopolitical conflicts. This vigilance includes monitoring network traffic for anomalies, conducting regular security audits, and staying on top of the latest cyber threats and—let’s face it—the latest geopolitical conflicts.
Train Your Employees
The importance of thorough cybersecurity education can’t be understated. After all, employees are usually the first line of defense against cyber threats. So, they should be trained to handle the information system properly within the organization. They should know what to do and what not to do before, during, and after a geopolitical cyberattack.
However, there’s another type of employee crucial for the strength of cybersecurity within an organization – cybersecurity professionals themselves.
These individuals must be on top of their game at all times. One way to ensure this is to only hire professionals with ample experience and education. For instance, completing a renowned Master’s program like OPIT’s Enterprise Cybersecurity should be a huge green flag for any employer. It signals a strong commitment to cybersecurity excellence and a deep understanding of the latest trends and techniques in the field.
Invest in the education and professional development of your employees, and you stand a chance against the ever-evolving landscape of cyber threats, geopolitical and beyond.
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From the same author
Read the articleThe world is rapidly changing. New technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) are transforming our lives and work, redefining the definition of “essential office skills.”
So what essential skills do today’s workers need to thrive in a business world undergoing a major digital transformation? It’s a question that Alan Lerner, director at Toptal and lecturer at the Open Institute of Technology (OPIT), addressed in his recent online masterclass.
In a broad overview of the new office landscape, Lerner shares the essential skills leaders need to manage – including artificial intelligence – to keep abreast of trends.
Here are eight essential capabilities business leaders in the AI era need, according to Lerner, which he also detailed in OPIT’s recent Master’s in Digital Business and Innovation webinar.
An Adapting Professional Environment
Lerner started his discussion by quoting naturalist Charles Darwin.
“It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is the most adaptable to change.”
The quote serves to highlight the level of change that we are currently seeing in the professional world, said Lerner.
According to the World Economic Forum’s The Future of Jobs Report 2025, over the next five years 22% of the labor market will be affected by structural change – including job creation and destruction – and much of that change will be enabled by new technologies such as AI and robotics. They expect the displacement of 92 million existing jobs and the creation of 170 million new jobs by 2030.
While there will be significant growth in frontline jobs – such as delivery drivers, construction workers, and care workers – the fastest-growing jobs will be tech-related roles, including big data specialists, FinTech engineers, and AI and machine learning specialists, while the greatest decline will be in clerical and secretarial roles. The report also predicts that most workers can anticipate that 39% of their existing skill set will be transformed or outdated in five years.
Lerner also highlighted key findings in the Accenture Life Trends 2025 Report, which explores behaviors and attitudes related to business, technology, and social shifts. The report noted five key trends:
- Cost of Hesitation – People are becoming more wary of the information they receive online.
- The Parent Trap – Parents and governments are increasingly concerned with helping the younger generation shape a safe relationship with digital technology.
- Impatience Economy – People are looking for quick solutions over traditional methods to achieve their health and financial goals.
- The Dignity of Work – Employees desire to feel inspired, to be entrusted with agency, and to achieve a work-life balance.
- Social Rewilding – People seek to disconnect and focus on satisfying activities and meaningful interactions.
These are consumer and employee demands representing opportunities for change in the modern business landscape.
Key Capabilities for the AI Era
Businesses are using a variety of strategies to adapt, though not always strategically. According to McClean & Company’s HR Trends Report 2025, 42% of respondents said they are currently implementing AI solutions, but only 7% have a documented AI implementation strategy.
This approach reflects the newness of the technology, with many still unsure of the best way to leverage AI, but also feeling the pressure to adopt and adapt, experiment, and fail forward.
So, what skills do leaders need to lead in an environment with both transformation and uncertainty? Lerner highlighted eight essential capabilities, independent of technology.
Capability 1: Manage Complexity
Leaders need to be able to solve problems and make decisions under fast-changing conditions. This requires:
- Being able to look at and understand organizations as complex social-technical systems
- Keeping a continuous eye on change and adopting an “outside-in” vision of their organization
- Moving fast and fixing things faster
- Embracing digital literacy and technological capabilities
Capability 2: Leverage Networks
Leaders need to develop networks systematically to achieve organizational goals because it is no longer possible to work within silos. Leaders should:
- Use networks to gain insights into complex problems
- Create networks to enhance influence
- Treat networks as mutually rewarding relationships
- Develop a robust profile that can be adapted for different networks
Capability 3: Think and Act “Global”
Leaders should benchmark using global best practices but adapt them to local challenges and the needs of their organization. This requires:
- Identifying what great companies are achieving and seeking data to understand underlying patterns
- Developing perspectives to craft global strategies that incorporate regional and local tactics
- Learning how to navigate culturally complex and nuanced business solutions
Capability 4: Inspire Engagement
Leaders must foster a culture that creates meaningful connections between employees and organizational values. This means:
- Understanding individual values and needs
- Shaping projects and assignments to meet different values and needs
- Fostering an inclusive work environment with plenty of psychological safety
- Developing meaningful conversations and both providing and receiving feedback
- Sharing advice and asking for help when needed
Capability 5: Communicate Strategically
Leaders should develop crisp, clear messaging adaptable to various audiences and focus on active listening. Achieving this involves:
- Creating their communication style and finding their unique voice
- Developing storytelling skills
- Utilizing a data-centric and fact-based approach to communication
- Continual practice and asking for feedback
Capability 6: Foster Innovation
Leaders should collaborate with experts to build a reliable innovation process and a creative environment where new ideas thrive. Essential steps include:
- Developing or enhancing structures that best support innovation
- Documenting and refreshing innovation systems, processes, and practices
- Encouraging people to discover new ways of working
- Aiming to think outside the box and develop a growth mindset
- Trying to be as “tech-savvy” as possible
Capability 7: Cultivate Learning Agility
Leaders should always seek out and learn new things and not be afraid to ask questions. This involves:
- Adopting a lifelong learning mindset
- Seeking opportunities to discover new approaches and skills
- Enhancing problem-solving skills
- Reviewing both successful and unsuccessful case studies
Capability 8: Develop Personal Adaptability
Leaders should be focused on being effective when facing uncertainty and adapting to change with vigor. Therefore, leaders should:
- Be flexible about their approach to facing challenging situations
- Build resilience by effectively managing stress, time, and energy
- Recognize when past approaches do not work in current situations
- Learn from and capitalize on mistakes
Curiosity and Adaptability
With the eight key capabilities in mind, Lerner suggests that curiosity and adaptability are the key skills that everyone needs to thrive in the current environment.
He also advocates for lifelong learning and teaches several key courses at OPIT which can lead to a Bachelor’s Degree in Digital Business.
Read the articleMany people treat cyber threats and digital fraud as a new phenomenon that only appeared with the development of the internet. But fraud – intentional deceit to manipulate a victim – has always existed; it is just the tools that have changed.
In a recent online course for the Open Institute of Technology (OPIT), AI & Cybersecurity Strategist Tom Vazdar, chair of OPIT’s Master’s Degree in Enterprise Cybersecurity, demonstrated the striking parallels between some of the famous fraud cases of the 18th century and modern cyber fraud.
Why does the history of fraud matter?
Primarily because the psychology and fraud tactics have remained consistent over the centuries. While cybersecurity is a tool that can combat modern digital fraud threats, no defense strategy will be successful without addressing the underlying psychology and tactics.
These historical fraud cases Vazdar addresses offer valuable lessons for current and future cybersecurity approaches.
The South Sea Bubble (1720)
The South Sea Bubble was one of the first stock market crashes in history. While it may not have had the same far-reaching consequences as the Black Thursday crash of 1929 or the 2008 crash, it shows how fraud can lead to stock market bubbles and advantages for insider traders.
The South Sea Company was a British company that emerged to monopolize trade with the Spanish colonies in South America. The company promised investors significant returns but provided no evidence of its activities. This saw the stock prices grow from £100 to £1,000 in a matter of months, then crash when the company’s weakness was revealed.
Many people lost a significant amount of money, including Sir Isaac Newton, prompting the statement, “I can calculate the movement of the stars, but not the madness of men.“
Investors often have no way to verify a company’s claim, making stock markets a fertile ground for manipulation and fraud since their inception. When one party has more information than another, it creates the opportunity for fraud. This can be seen today in Ponzi schemes, tech stock bubbles driven by manipulative media coverage, and initial cryptocurrency offerings.
The Diamond Necklace Affair (1784-1785)
The Diamond Necklace Affair is an infamous incident of fraud linked to the French Revolution. An early example of identity theft, it also demonstrates that the harm caused by such a crime can go far beyond financial.
A French aristocrat named Jeanne de la Mont convinced Cardinal Louis-René-Édouard, Prince de Rohan into thinking that he was buying a valuable diamond necklace on behalf of Queen Marie Antoinette. De la Mont forged letters from the queen and even had someone impersonate her for a meeting, all while convincing the cardinal of the need for secrecy. The cardinal overlooked several questionable issues because he believed he would gain political benefit from the transaction.
When the scheme finally exposed, it damaged Marie Antoinette’s reputation, despite her lack of involvement in the deception. The story reinforced the public perception of her as a frivolous aristocrat living off the labor of the people. This contributed to the overall resentment of the aristocracy that erupted in the French Revolution and likely played a role in Marie Antoinette’s death. Had she not been seen as frivolous, she might have been allowed to live after her husband’s death.
Today, impersonation scams work in similar ways. For example, a fraudster might forge communication from a CEO to convince employees to release funds or take some other action. The risk of this is only increasing with improved technology such as deepfakes.
Spanish Prisoner Scam (Late 1700s)
The Spanish Prisoner Scam will probably sound very familiar to anyone who received a “Nigerian prince” email in the early 2000s.
Victims received letters from a “wealthy Spanish prisoner” who needed their help to access his fortune. If they sent money to facilitate his escape and travel, he would reward them with greater riches when he regained his fortune. This was only one of many similar scams in the 1700s, often involving follow-up requests for additional payments before the scammer disappeared.
While the “Nigerian prince” scam received enough publicity that it became almost unbelievable that people could fall for it, if done well, these can be psychologically sophisticated scams. The stories play on people’s emotions, get them invested in the person, and enamor them with the idea of being someone helpful and important. A compelling narrative can diminish someone’s critical thinking and cause them to ignore red flags.
Today, these scams are more likely to take the form of inheritance fraud or a lottery scam, where, again, a person has to pay an advance fee to unlock a much bigger reward, playing on the common desire for easy money.
Evolution of Fraud
These examples make it clear that fraud is nothing new and that effective tactics have thrived over the centuries. Technology simply opens up new opportunities for fraud.
While 18th-century scammers had to rely on face-to-face contact and fraudulent letters, in the 19th century they could leverage the telegraph for “urgent” communication and newspaper ads to reach broader audiences. In the 20th century, there were telephones and television ads. Today, there are email, social media, and deepfakes, with new technologies emerging daily.
Rather than quack doctors offering miracle cures, we see online health scams selling diet pills and antiaging products. Rather than impersonating real people, we see fake social media accounts and catfishing. Fraudulent sites convince people to enter their bank details rather than asking them to send money. The anonymity of the digital world protects perpetrators.
But despite the technology changing, the underlying psychology that makes scams successful remains the same:
- Greed and the desire for easy money
- Fear of missing out and the belief that a response is urgent
- Social pressure to “keep up with the Joneses” and the “Bandwagon Effect”
- Trust in authority without verification
Therefore, the best protection against scams remains the same: critical thinking and skepticism, not technology.
Responding to Fraud
In conclusion, Vazdar shared a series of steps that people should take to protect themselves against fraud:
- Think before you click.
- Beware of secrecy and urgency.
- Verify identities.
- If it seems too good to be true, be skeptical.
- Use available security tools.
Those security tools have changed over time and will continue to change, but the underlying steps for identifying and preventing fraud remain the same.
For more insights from Vazdar and other experts in the field, consider enrolling in highly specialized and comprehensive programs like OPIT’s Enterprise Security Master’s program.
-
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Related posts
The world is rapidly changing. New technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) are transforming our lives and work, redefining the definition of “essential office skills.”
So what essential skills do today’s workers need to thrive in a business world undergoing a major digital transformation? It’s a question that Alan Lerner, director at Toptal and lecturer at the Open Institute of Technology (OPIT), addressed in his recent online masterclass.
In a broad overview of the new office landscape, Lerner shares the essential skills leaders need to manage – including artificial intelligence – to keep abreast of trends.
Here are eight essential capabilities business leaders in the AI era need, according to Lerner, which he also detailed in OPIT’s recent Master’s in Digital Business and Innovation webinar.
An Adapting Professional Environment
Lerner started his discussion by quoting naturalist Charles Darwin.
“It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is the most adaptable to change.”
The quote serves to highlight the level of change that we are currently seeing in the professional world, said Lerner.
According to the World Economic Forum’s The Future of Jobs Report 2025, over the next five years 22% of the labor market will be affected by structural change – including job creation and destruction – and much of that change will be enabled by new technologies such as AI and robotics. They expect the displacement of 92 million existing jobs and the creation of 170 million new jobs by 2030.
While there will be significant growth in frontline jobs – such as delivery drivers, construction workers, and care workers – the fastest-growing jobs will be tech-related roles, including big data specialists, FinTech engineers, and AI and machine learning specialists, while the greatest decline will be in clerical and secretarial roles. The report also predicts that most workers can anticipate that 39% of their existing skill set will be transformed or outdated in five years.
Lerner also highlighted key findings in the Accenture Life Trends 2025 Report, which explores behaviors and attitudes related to business, technology, and social shifts. The report noted five key trends:
- Cost of Hesitation – People are becoming more wary of the information they receive online.
- The Parent Trap – Parents and governments are increasingly concerned with helping the younger generation shape a safe relationship with digital technology.
- Impatience Economy – People are looking for quick solutions over traditional methods to achieve their health and financial goals.
- The Dignity of Work – Employees desire to feel inspired, to be entrusted with agency, and to achieve a work-life balance.
- Social Rewilding – People seek to disconnect and focus on satisfying activities and meaningful interactions.
These are consumer and employee demands representing opportunities for change in the modern business landscape.
Key Capabilities for the AI Era
Businesses are using a variety of strategies to adapt, though not always strategically. According to McClean & Company’s HR Trends Report 2025, 42% of respondents said they are currently implementing AI solutions, but only 7% have a documented AI implementation strategy.
This approach reflects the newness of the technology, with many still unsure of the best way to leverage AI, but also feeling the pressure to adopt and adapt, experiment, and fail forward.
So, what skills do leaders need to lead in an environment with both transformation and uncertainty? Lerner highlighted eight essential capabilities, independent of technology.
Capability 1: Manage Complexity
Leaders need to be able to solve problems and make decisions under fast-changing conditions. This requires:
- Being able to look at and understand organizations as complex social-technical systems
- Keeping a continuous eye on change and adopting an “outside-in” vision of their organization
- Moving fast and fixing things faster
- Embracing digital literacy and technological capabilities
Capability 2: Leverage Networks
Leaders need to develop networks systematically to achieve organizational goals because it is no longer possible to work within silos. Leaders should:
- Use networks to gain insights into complex problems
- Create networks to enhance influence
- Treat networks as mutually rewarding relationships
- Develop a robust profile that can be adapted for different networks
Capability 3: Think and Act “Global”
Leaders should benchmark using global best practices but adapt them to local challenges and the needs of their organization. This requires:
- Identifying what great companies are achieving and seeking data to understand underlying patterns
- Developing perspectives to craft global strategies that incorporate regional and local tactics
- Learning how to navigate culturally complex and nuanced business solutions
Capability 4: Inspire Engagement
Leaders must foster a culture that creates meaningful connections between employees and organizational values. This means:
- Understanding individual values and needs
- Shaping projects and assignments to meet different values and needs
- Fostering an inclusive work environment with plenty of psychological safety
- Developing meaningful conversations and both providing and receiving feedback
- Sharing advice and asking for help when needed
Capability 5: Communicate Strategically
Leaders should develop crisp, clear messaging adaptable to various audiences and focus on active listening. Achieving this involves:
- Creating their communication style and finding their unique voice
- Developing storytelling skills
- Utilizing a data-centric and fact-based approach to communication
- Continual practice and asking for feedback
Capability 6: Foster Innovation
Leaders should collaborate with experts to build a reliable innovation process and a creative environment where new ideas thrive. Essential steps include:
- Developing or enhancing structures that best support innovation
- Documenting and refreshing innovation systems, processes, and practices
- Encouraging people to discover new ways of working
- Aiming to think outside the box and develop a growth mindset
- Trying to be as “tech-savvy” as possible
Capability 7: Cultivate Learning Agility
Leaders should always seek out and learn new things and not be afraid to ask questions. This involves:
- Adopting a lifelong learning mindset
- Seeking opportunities to discover new approaches and skills
- Enhancing problem-solving skills
- Reviewing both successful and unsuccessful case studies
Capability 8: Develop Personal Adaptability
Leaders should be focused on being effective when facing uncertainty and adapting to change with vigor. Therefore, leaders should:
- Be flexible about their approach to facing challenging situations
- Build resilience by effectively managing stress, time, and energy
- Recognize when past approaches do not work in current situations
- Learn from and capitalize on mistakes
Curiosity and Adaptability
With the eight key capabilities in mind, Lerner suggests that curiosity and adaptability are the key skills that everyone needs to thrive in the current environment.
He also advocates for lifelong learning and teaches several key courses at OPIT which can lead to a Bachelor’s Degree in Digital Business.
Many people treat cyber threats and digital fraud as a new phenomenon that only appeared with the development of the internet. But fraud – intentional deceit to manipulate a victim – has always existed; it is just the tools that have changed.
In a recent online course for the Open Institute of Technology (OPIT), AI & Cybersecurity Strategist Tom Vazdar, chair of OPIT’s Master’s Degree in Enterprise Cybersecurity, demonstrated the striking parallels between some of the famous fraud cases of the 18th century and modern cyber fraud.
Why does the history of fraud matter?
Primarily because the psychology and fraud tactics have remained consistent over the centuries. While cybersecurity is a tool that can combat modern digital fraud threats, no defense strategy will be successful without addressing the underlying psychology and tactics.
These historical fraud cases Vazdar addresses offer valuable lessons for current and future cybersecurity approaches.
The South Sea Bubble (1720)
The South Sea Bubble was one of the first stock market crashes in history. While it may not have had the same far-reaching consequences as the Black Thursday crash of 1929 or the 2008 crash, it shows how fraud can lead to stock market bubbles and advantages for insider traders.
The South Sea Company was a British company that emerged to monopolize trade with the Spanish colonies in South America. The company promised investors significant returns but provided no evidence of its activities. This saw the stock prices grow from £100 to £1,000 in a matter of months, then crash when the company’s weakness was revealed.
Many people lost a significant amount of money, including Sir Isaac Newton, prompting the statement, “I can calculate the movement of the stars, but not the madness of men.“
Investors often have no way to verify a company’s claim, making stock markets a fertile ground for manipulation and fraud since their inception. When one party has more information than another, it creates the opportunity for fraud. This can be seen today in Ponzi schemes, tech stock bubbles driven by manipulative media coverage, and initial cryptocurrency offerings.
The Diamond Necklace Affair (1784-1785)
The Diamond Necklace Affair is an infamous incident of fraud linked to the French Revolution. An early example of identity theft, it also demonstrates that the harm caused by such a crime can go far beyond financial.
A French aristocrat named Jeanne de la Mont convinced Cardinal Louis-René-Édouard, Prince de Rohan into thinking that he was buying a valuable diamond necklace on behalf of Queen Marie Antoinette. De la Mont forged letters from the queen and even had someone impersonate her for a meeting, all while convincing the cardinal of the need for secrecy. The cardinal overlooked several questionable issues because he believed he would gain political benefit from the transaction.
When the scheme finally exposed, it damaged Marie Antoinette’s reputation, despite her lack of involvement in the deception. The story reinforced the public perception of her as a frivolous aristocrat living off the labor of the people. This contributed to the overall resentment of the aristocracy that erupted in the French Revolution and likely played a role in Marie Antoinette’s death. Had she not been seen as frivolous, she might have been allowed to live after her husband’s death.
Today, impersonation scams work in similar ways. For example, a fraudster might forge communication from a CEO to convince employees to release funds or take some other action. The risk of this is only increasing with improved technology such as deepfakes.
Spanish Prisoner Scam (Late 1700s)
The Spanish Prisoner Scam will probably sound very familiar to anyone who received a “Nigerian prince” email in the early 2000s.
Victims received letters from a “wealthy Spanish prisoner” who needed their help to access his fortune. If they sent money to facilitate his escape and travel, he would reward them with greater riches when he regained his fortune. This was only one of many similar scams in the 1700s, often involving follow-up requests for additional payments before the scammer disappeared.
While the “Nigerian prince” scam received enough publicity that it became almost unbelievable that people could fall for it, if done well, these can be psychologically sophisticated scams. The stories play on people’s emotions, get them invested in the person, and enamor them with the idea of being someone helpful and important. A compelling narrative can diminish someone’s critical thinking and cause them to ignore red flags.
Today, these scams are more likely to take the form of inheritance fraud or a lottery scam, where, again, a person has to pay an advance fee to unlock a much bigger reward, playing on the common desire for easy money.
Evolution of Fraud
These examples make it clear that fraud is nothing new and that effective tactics have thrived over the centuries. Technology simply opens up new opportunities for fraud.
While 18th-century scammers had to rely on face-to-face contact and fraudulent letters, in the 19th century they could leverage the telegraph for “urgent” communication and newspaper ads to reach broader audiences. In the 20th century, there were telephones and television ads. Today, there are email, social media, and deepfakes, with new technologies emerging daily.
Rather than quack doctors offering miracle cures, we see online health scams selling diet pills and antiaging products. Rather than impersonating real people, we see fake social media accounts and catfishing. Fraudulent sites convince people to enter their bank details rather than asking them to send money. The anonymity of the digital world protects perpetrators.
But despite the technology changing, the underlying psychology that makes scams successful remains the same:
- Greed and the desire for easy money
- Fear of missing out and the belief that a response is urgent
- Social pressure to “keep up with the Joneses” and the “Bandwagon Effect”
- Trust in authority without verification
Therefore, the best protection against scams remains the same: critical thinking and skepticism, not technology.
Responding to Fraud
In conclusion, Vazdar shared a series of steps that people should take to protect themselves against fraud:
- Think before you click.
- Beware of secrecy and urgency.
- Verify identities.
- If it seems too good to be true, be skeptical.
- Use available security tools.
Those security tools have changed over time and will continue to change, but the underlying steps for identifying and preventing fraud remain the same.
For more insights from Vazdar and other experts in the field, consider enrolling in highly specialized and comprehensive programs like OPIT’s Enterprise Security Master’s program.
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