Cybercriminals and how they strive ahead…
All cyber crime can be linked back to a particular person or people – with one aim in mind – gaining from someone 
else’s loss. You can easily refer to cybercriminals as the digital era’s bandits – online mafia as it were… organized criminals utilizing the cyber world as their playground for mayhem making.
It appears that top cybercriminals tend to make their profits by providing a means to an end, and of course these small profits eventually add up – resulting in multitudes of money earned by simply hacking into someone’s computer system.
It seems that as long as one has the scruples to pull off hacking into another person’s accounts and steal their valuable information for personal gain – then the life of a cyber criminal is tailor made for that person.
As is evident in the story of Albert Gonzalaez. This particular conman was arrested in Miami, and upon arrest could claim ownership to many a luxury item – all thanks to his lucrative hacking enterprise. The shocking fact is that Gonzalez did not even create the ‘sniffer’ tool which he utilized to rake in his millions dollars worth of assets (ranging from a luxury condo, 2006 BMW and at least $1 650 000 in cash…). The truth is that his friend, Stephan Watt created the tool, and Gonzalez merely distributed the tool, and reaped the many hefty fruits of his sown malicious seed – including time spent in jail. (in 2008 Gonzalez was charged with hacking into retail clothing chain TJ Maxx’s computer system and stealing 40 million credit and debit card numbers – which would be sold on the black market”.
The shocking thing about the Gonzalez case was that upon apprehension, it was found out that Gonzalez had worked in the Secret Service and was consequently offered a position to assist authorities in executing “Operation Firewall”. A project designed to capture Cybercriminals and stop them in their tracks. It was then found out that although Gonzalez assisted in the apprehension of 28 cybercriminals, he had alerted numerous others to the arrest – this way saving those selct few. Dodgy if you asked me.
According to Corinne Iozzio, a Security News reporter, “More often than not, a hacker sees an open window-a hole in a system’s security, a backdoor, etc. – and climbs on through merely to prove that they can.” But with the hole, window, and backdoor comes access to valuable information and the opportunity to financially crush countless unsuspecting individuals. Not everyone climbs through that window with the same intentions. “
It seems that cybercrime finds its roots in Botnet’s. With the aid of Botnet’s, cybercriminals are highly capable of poking around in a use’s system and carrying out their various malicious intents.
For those of you not familiar with the term Botnet, it is simply a collection of thousands of computers owned by regular people and covertly controlled by cybercriminals.
As is stated by a regular Security News reporter, “Botnet’s can work by stealing information from thousands (or millions) of individual computers. Cybercriminals can tell their Botnet armies to install spyware like keystroke logging malware, and to report back sensitive information, like banking login passwords or credit card numbers. The criminal can then use the information personally or sell it to others to take advantage of it. Unfortunately each computer in a Botnet army is linked to an unsuspecting owner whose entire identity could be at risk.”
Should you suspect cybercrime there are a few steps one could take to prevent further cybercrime occurrences:
- You can report a suspicious-looking website to Norton Safeweb.
- If you think you’ve been sent an infected file, upload it to Symantec Security Response.
- If you want to talk to other people about it, check out the Norton User Forums.
- You can also check out the United States Computer Emergency Readiness Team, or US CERT for more information, or go to the Secret Service Computer Crime & Intellectual Property Section.
It must be said that although cybercrime is a real and present danger- we should not shy away from the internet and all things computer related in lieu of fear of getting caught in the cybercrime web – instead we should remain vigilant and proactive against cybercrime.
To avoid getting caught in a web of dingy cybercrime related activities, simply install a fully functional and up to date antimalware application, and perform regular updates, this way ensuring your system remains at its optimal security levels – at all times.
Comments (1)
[...] You can read the full article here. [...]