New research from McAfee concludes organized crime is creating a new generation of cybercriminals who use “tactics reminiscent of those employed by the KGB during the Cold War.” The study, which used input from European high-tech crime units and the FBI, found gangs target students from leading academic institutions and train them to commit hightech crime on a mass scale.
Teens as young as 14 are being attracted to cybercrime by the celebrity status of high-tech criminals and the promise of monetary gain.
Additional findings from the Virtual Criminology Report 2006 include:
> Cybercrime cult: Cybercrime has established a cult following with online offenders rising almost to celebrity status within hacking communities.
> The malware milkround: Organized crime is now employing KGB-style tactics to ensnare the next generation of hackers and malware authors. Cybercriminals approach students and IT grads to recruit fresh cyberblood.
> Inside jobs: The vast majority of hacks exploit inadequate company security procedures, current and former employees, and contractors and suppliers. Cybercriminals even place moles by helping grads get jobs.
Tools of the trade
As cybercrime becomes big business, the crooks are employing new tools, including:
> Psychological warfare: Phishing e-mails have increased by approximately 25 per cent over the last year but are becoming more sophisticated and harder to detect. Spear phishing, tricking users into giving away sensitive information by masquerading as employers or fellow colleagues, is also on the rise.
> Social scams: The crowds at social networking and community sites are drawing criminals like flies. Authors cash in by loading fake profiles and pages with adware, spyware and malware. They gather personal information divulged online to create virtual twin identities.
> Data seepage: Simple guesswork often unlocks password-protected doors and unsecured removable media, such as USB sticks, providing an easy route for information transfer.
> Botnets: Robot networks of illegally linked and remotely controlled computers are now the preferred method for Internet thieves to effectively execute attacks. At least 12 million computers around the world are now compromised and are used for phishing schemes, illegal spamming, spreading pornography, and stealing passwords and identities.
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