Hacking is no longer a one-person crime of opportunity. It has now evolved to an open market of sophisticated malware backed by crime syndicates and money launders. In the past, the typical hacking scenario involved a lone attacker, or a few mates, working late at night with a slab of beer, looking for unsecured IP addresses. When they found one, they used the Web server to break in using a multitude of system weaknesses.
Once they hacked the system, they explored the compromised company to their heart’s content. Often their intent was not malicious, just to “look and see”. If they did do something illegal, it was typically a spur-of-the-moment decision….A crime of opportunity.
Today, it is a completely different scenario! Hacking is all about cybercrime, all the time. It comes complete with crime syndicates, bidding markets for malware, botnets for hire….And cyber warfare went beserk.
While the lone criminal mastermind still exists, most malicious hacking attacks are the result of professionally organized groups. Traditional organized crime groups that ran drugs, gambling, and extortion have joined the online money fraud ring. These groups are led not by mafia-type criminals but by several very large groups of professional criminals specializing in cybercrime. Competition between these groups is fierce.
The most successful organized cybercrime syndicates are internet marketing businesses with large affiliate groups. In fact, today’s cybercriminal probably has more in common with direct marketing companies like Avon or Amway.
These hacking Crews are dedicated to rogue behavior. They have HR departments, full-time employees, project management teams and team leaders….And it’s all criminal! You won’t find funny messages printed to the screen or teenage antics. They operate in the open, and some even have their own Wikipedia entries. In fact, the Russian Business Network is a state-sponsored organization.
The twin concepts of specialization and division of labor are at the core of these organizations. Usually, a single mastermind, or an inner circle, will run the group. Teams specialize in different areas of cybercrime. One team is dedicated to creating malware; while another dedicated to marketing; Another team will manage the distribution channel; and another team will be in charge of creating botnets and renting them to other cybercriminals.
Traditional information technology security practices don’t work well against today’s malware. Anti-malware is usually signature-based which by definition means that it is always behind the cutting edge. Using the power of the internet, cyber crime has evolved into a service-oriented industry with the main goal of fleecing companies and people out of their hard-earned money and intellectual property rights.
Following on from Threat No 1 is the large army of affiliates. These cybercriminal organizations are not syndicates or corporations. They are simply entrepreneurial in nature, small businesses offering internet marketing services….And after one thing: your money.
There are many home-based businesses that offer honest business to customers and would never become involved with cybercriminals. However, there are many who are not honest! These malicious home-based business operations steal identities and passwords. They set up website redirections to fake websites to capture your sensitive details. In the end, they want money, so they start with posting fraudulent credit card or banking transactions. They then convert the stolen money into local currency using money mules, electronic cash distribution, e-banking, or some other sort of money laundering transaction.
It’s not hard to find people who will launder money. There are much home-based businesses competing to be the one that gets to take a large percentage cut of the stolen money. In fact, you’d be surprised at the type of people begging to do support business with Internet criminals.
Cybercriminals advertise “no questions asked”. They provide “bulletproof” hosting in countries far from the reaches of legal subpoenas of western countries. They offer public bulletin boards, 24/7 telephone support, software specials, satisfied customer references, bidding forums, anti-malware avoidance skills. They provide top support services that help their home-based businesses become better online criminals
Many of these cyber-criminal affiliates and the persons behind them have been identified, and arrested, over the past few years. Their social media profiles show them as happy, wealthy people with big houses, expensive cars, and families taking foreign vacations. They are not the slightest bit guilty about their business activities….stealing money from others!
Imagine these peoples barbecues where they actually tell neighbors and friends that they run an “Internet marketing business”. They are simply social engineering their way to stealing millions of hard-earned dollars from honest people like them….Despite the extensive user education programs about internet security.
In the early days, bragging about hacking exploits was very common. Today’s cyber criminal seeks to fly under the radar….With the exception of the hacktivists.
These days information security professionals contend with an increasing number of individuals dedicated to political activism e.g the infamous Anonymous group. Politically motivated hackers have always existed. Today, it is mostly being done in the open. Society is readily accepting Hacktivists as another form of political activism.
Political hacking groups communicate anonymously in open forums. They announce their targets and hacking tools in advance. They recruit members, take their political grievances to the media to generate public support. They even act astonished if they get arrested for their illegal deeds.
The Hacktivist’s main intention is to embarrass and bring as much as possible negative media attention to the victim. Their activities include hacking customer information, committing DDoS (distributed denial of service) attacks, or downloading sensitive data, or simply causing the victimized organization continuing strife.In 2011, there were a number of high profile attacks by Hacktivists on companies like Sony Corporation. Millions of customers sensitive records were downloaded from Sony’s computer systems.
Political hacktivism’s intention is to cause monetary pain to its victim to change the victim’s behavior. Individuals are the collateral damage of the Hacktivist in this fight with governments and corporations. Regardless of whether one believes in the hacktivist’s political cause or not, the intention and the methodology will always remain as criminal activity.
Information Technology security professionals contend with malicious hackers day in, day out. These hackers exist with the main purpose of stealing intellectual property from companies….Otherwise known as corporate espionage.
Their method of operation is to break into a company’s IT assets, capture and dump all the passwords. Over time, they steal gigabytes of confidential information like new product ideas, patents, military secrets, business plans, financial information,and so on. Their intention is to steal valuable information to sell to their customers. Their main goal is to stay undetected within the compromised company’s network for as long as possible.
They eavesdrop on important emails, raid the victim’s databases, and gain access to so sensitive information. They have developed their own search engines and query tools to collect interesting intellectual property.
This sort of hacker is known as an APT (advanced persistent threat) or DHA (determined human adversary). Many large companies have been successfully compromised by these hacking campaigns.
No matter what the intention of the group behind the cybercrime is, someone has to develop the malware. In the past, a single programmer would make malware for personal use, or perhaps to sell. Today, there are literally teams and companies that are dedicated to writing malware. They develop customized malware intended to bypass the security defenses of targeted victims…..And they’re tools are sold on the open market in bidding forums.
The malware is packaged software code like much of the software on the internet. One program is tasked with the initial exploitation of the victim’s computer. Once the code is installed, it contacts a “mothership” web server for instructions. These servers move from computer to computer, just as the mothership does in a computer game.
All in all, the setup used by today’s malware writers makes it very difficult for information security professionals to defend against the hacker’s attacks.
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