http://www.nzherald.co.nz/technology/news/article.cfm?c_id=5&objectid=10464198
Black market pays $550 for your bank log-in
12:43PM Monday Sep 17, 2007
By James Daley
Cyber crooks will pay big to access your bank - from the comfort of a whole different country. Photo / Bradley Ambrose
Email passwords and bank account details are being sold online on the international black market for up to $550 a time, according to a study by Symantec, the internet security business.
Bank account details fetch between $42 and $557, according to Symantec, while email passwords are sold for as much as $473 or as little as $1.
The biggest market is for credit card details, which fetch between 70 cents and $4 a time - but which account for 22 per cent of items sold on the black market.
Symantec said the cards are typically sold in batches of 10 or 20.
However, they don't fetch as much as some other pieces of information, as credit cards are usually only good for one or two transactions before they are cancelled.
Lee Sharrocks, the consumer sales director at Symantec UK, said criminals there are earning up thousands a week selling personal data to other criminal gangs, using sophisticated pieces of software to "phish" for the information.
"The latest findings from Symantec show that the cyber criminal of today is highly skilled and intelligent," he said. "With such sophisticated means of online attacks, it is essential that consumers are aware of the new types of threats that they face everyday and understand how to protect themselves and their identities.
"The internet underworld is growing at an alarming rate, with the latest trends showing that the growth of black market auction sites is continuing to increase.
It's a multi billion-dollar criminal industry, and identities are becoming cheaper and easier to buy online.
"With the introduction of software toolkits to provide access to the technology needed to become involved in these identity scams, we can only expect this trend to continue to grow, so the need for consumer vigilance is higher than ever."
Mr Sharrocks said criminals could buy phishing software packages on the black market for as little as $75, which they then use to start gathering data.
Symantec found that the US was the country with the largest volume of underground servers, followed by Germany and Sweden.
- THE INDEPENDENT
Friday, June 5, 2009
Cyber Underworld
New Zealand Teenager is alleged to be a kingpin of the cyber underworld.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/technology/news/article.cfm?c_id=5&objectid=10479291
(Courtesy: NZHerald.Co.NZ- Weekly Herald- New Zealand).
Kiwi teen alleged cyber underworld king-pin
11:39AM Friday Nov 30, 2007
AKILL is allegedly a leading botherder who hires his skills to other cyber criminals for malicious means.
Related links:
FBI Bot Roast breaks up botnets, locks up botherders
A teenager being interviewed by police in Hamilton was allegedly an international cyber-crime leader whose services were used by other cyber criminals for their own malicious means.
New Zealand police Electronic Crime Laboratory manager Maarten Kleinjtes said the 18-year-old in question had written software that could infiltrate and gain control of computers, meaning others could use his services to create cyber havoc suiting their own means.
He said the suspect, whose cyber ID is 'AKILL', was known as a "botherder", and stood at the top of a botnet.
"He hires his services out to others, who make use of that botnet," Mr Kleinjtes told Radio New Zealand.
"If another cyber criminal wants to do an attack - in this case on the Pennsylvania University computers - then the botherder instructs all the machines that have been infected...to all at the same time attack these computers in Pennsylvania."
Mr Kleinjtes said New Zealand police had been investigating the activity for a few months along with the FBI in the United States, and Dutch authorities.
He said there were a number of people internationally involved in the alleged offending and it was not certain who, or how many people had profited from it.
About 1.3 million computers had been targeted in the botnet case in question and it was likely some of those were in New Zealand, Mr Kleinjtes said.
He said cyber criminals were not immune from detection.
"There is a misconception out there that people think they can remain anonymous on the internet, but that's not the case.
"Surveillance technology allows us to look at internet traffic between countries and work our way back actually where those instructions come from..."
He said AKILL was being "very co-operative and talking to us freely about what he was doing".
Mr Kleinjtes said cyber-crime was a big problem globally and he was aware of "turf wars" between cyber criminals.
For example, if one botherder had control of a cluster of computers, a second botherder might try to write software that enabled him to win control of that cluster.
"It's mainly driven by money now. It used to be the old hacker sitting in a dark room and trying to get into someone's computer and have a sort of trophy idea."
FBI assistant director James Finch emphasised on the agency's website that computer users needed to install anti-virus software and keep it updated.
Using firewalls and strong passwords helped make things difficult for botnetters.
Mr Kleinjtes said the software written for the botnet in question was encrypted and able to bypass anti-spy software guarding computers.
- NZPA
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/technology/news/article.cfm?c_id=5&objectid=10479291
(Courtesy: NZHerald.Co.NZ- Weekly Herald- New Zealand).
Kiwi teen alleged cyber underworld king-pin
11:39AM Friday Nov 30, 2007
AKILL is allegedly a leading botherder who hires his skills to other cyber criminals for malicious means.
Related links:
FBI Bot Roast breaks up botnets, locks up botherders
A teenager being interviewed by police in Hamilton was allegedly an international cyber-crime leader whose services were used by other cyber criminals for their own malicious means.
New Zealand police Electronic Crime Laboratory manager Maarten Kleinjtes said the 18-year-old in question had written software that could infiltrate and gain control of computers, meaning others could use his services to create cyber havoc suiting their own means.
He said the suspect, whose cyber ID is 'AKILL', was known as a "botherder", and stood at the top of a botnet.
"He hires his services out to others, who make use of that botnet," Mr Kleinjtes told Radio New Zealand.
"If another cyber criminal wants to do an attack - in this case on the Pennsylvania University computers - then the botherder instructs all the machines that have been infected...to all at the same time attack these computers in Pennsylvania."
Mr Kleinjtes said New Zealand police had been investigating the activity for a few months along with the FBI in the United States, and Dutch authorities.
He said there were a number of people internationally involved in the alleged offending and it was not certain who, or how many people had profited from it.
About 1.3 million computers had been targeted in the botnet case in question and it was likely some of those were in New Zealand, Mr Kleinjtes said.
He said cyber criminals were not immune from detection.
"There is a misconception out there that people think they can remain anonymous on the internet, but that's not the case.
"Surveillance technology allows us to look at internet traffic between countries and work our way back actually where those instructions come from..."
He said AKILL was being "very co-operative and talking to us freely about what he was doing".
Mr Kleinjtes said cyber-crime was a big problem globally and he was aware of "turf wars" between cyber criminals.
For example, if one botherder had control of a cluster of computers, a second botherder might try to write software that enabled him to win control of that cluster.
"It's mainly driven by money now. It used to be the old hacker sitting in a dark room and trying to get into someone's computer and have a sort of trophy idea."
FBI assistant director James Finch emphasised on the agency's website that computer users needed to install anti-virus software and keep it updated.
Using firewalls and strong passwords helped make things difficult for botnetters.
Mr Kleinjtes said the software written for the botnet in question was encrypted and able to bypass anti-spy software guarding computers.
- NZPA
Saturday, March 21, 2009
Virtual World
Virtual world is a computer based simulated world.
A user uses an avatar to interact with virtual world
Here is a tour of Virtual World 2008:
Disney's Club Penguin is a virtual world for children (with 15 million registered users).
Second Life is a popular virtual world.
What are security and privacy issues of the virtual world?
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
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