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 latest versions of 26 virus-scanning software products to determine whether the anti-virus software can detect the malware.
Cisco says the process “results in malware that is 10 to 20 times more effective than it would be otherwise, and frees up the attackers to work on other products rather than test how detectable their current exploits are.”
Today, eWeek published a story on botnet technology. Headlined “A Day in the Life of the Rustock Botnet,” the article includes a slide show of images of this prolific spamming botnet in action. Evolving dark side technology like this makes it easier for botmasters to evade spam filters. Spam levels are up 60 percent between January and June, according to the article.
Cyber crime is not just big business, it’s a huge underground economy in which thousands of “companies” and hundreds of thousands of individuals interact and do business with each other. Their targets are you and I and our small businesses.
Big companies have IT departments with access to the best counter-crime technologies in the world. Do you have an IT department? How do you keep cyber criminals out of your PC and your life?
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