Virus Bulletin 2006, the international virus conference, was held in Montreal this year. Just a few weeks ago I was fortunate enough to attend many of the presentations, which ranged from topics of targeted trojan attacks, botnets and new methods of botnet coordination, to the growing criminal element behind viruses. It's sometimes shocking to see how much the virus world has changed in the last few years. I'd wager that if there was just one overall theme of the conference, it was about criminals and the new profit motive behind today's malware. Long gone are the days when viruses were made by hackers just for fun. My favorite quote taken from the excellent, low-key conference was during a panel discussion on fighting cyber crime: "If anyone in the audience is a member of organized crime, please raise your hand." There's big money on the criminal side of viruses these days. The past two or three years has seen a dramatic rise in for-profit virus activity at every level, from the people running botnets and making money off spyware to widespread phishing attacks and various trojans that encrypt a user's data and request a ransom. . I'd like to look at the profit motive in some detail, to understand this dangerous new trend. First allow me to lump together the myriad of today's for-profit virus threats into just two camps, for the purpose of this column: those threats that target the Little Guy, like individuals and individual organizations (via targeted trojans, general trojans, rootkits and targeted hacking), and those amalgamated threats that target Big Populations (via botnets, tonnes of spam, and spyware). The virus folks behind both camps seek to steal money, information and identities. But they work in different ways. The link for this article located at is no longer available. . The malware landscape has shifted dramatically towards targeted attacks fueled by financial motives, prompting organizations and users to enhance cybersecurity awareness and measures.. Malware Trends,Cyber CrimeMotivations,Phishing Tactics,Botnets Strategies,Spyware Risks. . LinuxSecurity.com Team
The average daily volume of Internet attacks declined in the last six months, according to Symantec Corp.'s Internet Security Threat Report. Released last week, the report is a snapshot of security events derived from monitoring 20,000 security devices. . . .. The average daily volume of Internet attacks declined in the last six months, according to Symantec Corp.'s Internet Security Threat Report. Released last week, the report is a snapshot of security events derived from monitoring 20,000 security devices. From January through June 2004, Symantec calculated a daily attack rate of 10.6, compared with 12.6 from July through December 2003. The good news ends there. Profit-motivated attacks are on the rise: 16% of all attacks were aimed at E-commerce sites, compared with 4% in past reports. Phishing scams and the use of spyware to pilfer user names, passwords, and financial information also increased, says Vincent Weafer, senior director of Symantec's virus research team. The link for this article located at informationweek.com is no longer available. . The average daily volume of Internet attacks declined in the last six months, according to Symantec . average, daily, volume, internet, attacks, declined, months, according, symantec. . Anthony Pell
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