Organized Cybercrime
Cybercrime is getting organized:
Cyberscams are increasingly being committed by organized crime syndicates out to profit from sophisticated ruses rather than hackers keen to make an online name for themselves, according to a top U.S. official.
Christopher Painter, deputy chief of the computer crimes and intellectual property section at the Department of Justice, said there had been a distinct shift in recent years in the type of cybercriminals that online detectives now encounter.
“There has been a change in the people who attack computer networks, away from the ‘bragging hacker’ toward those driven by monetary motives,” Painter told Reuters in an interview this week.
Although media reports often focus on stories about teenage hackers tracked down in their bedroom, the greater danger lies in the more anonymous virtual interlopers.
“There are still instances of these ‘lone-gunman’ hackers but more and more we are seeing organized criminal groups, groups that are often organized online targeting victims via the internet,” said Painter, in London for a cybercrime conference.
I’ve been saying this sort of thing for years, and have long complained that cyberterrorism gets all the press while cybercrime is the real threat. I don’t think this article is fear and hype; it’s a real problem.
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Nate • September 19, 2006 8:33 AM
Regardless of who is doing the cybercrime, whether it be a “bragging hacker” or an organized criminal group, there are ways to protect yourself from most dangers.
Unique enough passwords work well to a certain extent, however it is specific files you are trying to protect. Cyber criminals are going to get in somehow, but in reality it is how you protect yourself once they get in that could save you an identity.
http://www.essentialsecurity.com/news.htm?id=30