“In 2010, aggressive malware now executes in stealth mode, running in the background with an oblivious end-user, and antivirus software that can’t detect it.” Thus, in 24 words, reviewer Ben Rothke sums up why you should read Fatal System Error: The Hunt for the New Crime Lords Who are Bringing Down the Internet, by Joseph [...]
Archive for the 'CyberCrime' Category
Inside a global cybercrime ring
Published by March 25th, 2010 in Adware, CyberCrime and Viruses. 0 CommentsA March 24, 2010 Reuters story headlined “Inside a global cybercrime ring” by reporter Jim Finkle leads with this paragraph: Hundreds of computer geeks, most of them students putting themselves through college, crammed into three floors of an office building in an industrial section of Ukraine’s capital Kiev, churning out code at a frenzied pace. [...]
Cyber crime: a clear and present danger
Published by February 16th, 2010 in CyberCrime, Data Theft and Small Business Security. 0 CommentsI’ve just been reading a new report on cyber crime, published by Deloitte, the major international accounting firm. I’m in the business of protecting individuals and small business owners from cyber crime, and this whitepaper provides an important update on this incredibly dangerous phenomenon. The 16-page document is titled, “Cyber Crime: A Clear and Present [...]
Bill would allow Obama to take over Internet
Published by September 3rd, 2009 in CyberCrime, CyberTerrorism and Uncategorized. 0 CommentsI’m in the business of cyber security, and I’m in favor of all the help we can get. But when a liberal Senator introduces legislation to fight cyber crime, my neck hairs stand up and vibrate. Sen. Jay Rockefeller’s Cybersecurity Act of 2009 raised a lot of hackles when it was first introduced because of [...]
A big tip of my hat to investigators and the U.S. Attorney who brought down Albert Gonzalez, the Miami hacker authorities were able to tie to a cyber-crimewave that hit companies from Heartland Payment Systems to Hannaford Brothers. The 28-year-old Gonzalez pled guilty to various charges and now faces up to 25 years in prison. [...]
Sometimes it seems that the dark side is leading in the development of new technology. Technical journals and reports abound with examples. Last week there was a reference to quality control services for malware makers in a report from Cisco. The report cited a Russian site that for a fee tests malicious files against the [...]
Fake Software: Cybercrime product of the year
Published by July 18th, 2009 in Botnets, CyberCrime, Viruses and Worms & Trojans. 0 CommentsIn its midyear report on cyber security, Cisco Systems names rogue anti-virus software the cybercrime product of the year. There is a lot of great software that you can get for little or nothing from the freeware and shareware communities. There is also a lot of very dangerous free software being pushed by cyber criminals. [...]
Markets Dive, Crooks Thrive
Published by October 10th, 2008 in CyberCrime and Uncategorized. 0 CommentsRecession is in the minds of people all over the globe, as market values tumble and panic sets in. But there is one group that won’t be participating in this recession: online criminals. Organized crime now controls more computing power than any government on earth, through vast armies of zombie computers, all programmed by and [...]
I took some time today to watch episode one of The Security Show: Cybercrime, hosted by Microsoft’s Kai Axford. Axford interviews an FBI spokesman, who remains off camera. It’s an interesting discussion, and one of the things you’ll learn if you watch it is that the feds are pretty worried about cyber crime. They lack [...]
Cybergangs Mimic Mafia
Published by July 16th, 2008 in CyberCrime, Identity Theft and Internet Security. 0 CommentsWeb security company Finjan released a report today in which it shows how cybercrime has evolved into a “well-structured business model.” It even calls cybergangs “companies,” and makes convincing comparisons with La Cosa Nostra. Emil Protalinski at Ars Technica published a fascinating article today on the Finjan study titled Report: cybercrime groups starting to operate [...]