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Has anyone else heard about this?Quote:
"Evidence is coming to light that spammers and virus writers are in cahoots withorganised crime gangs to create malicious programs and viruses that turn your pc into a node of a giant worldwide network, to which access is sold"
No i wont go away.....
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no, state your source..
I mean.. a link to the article you got this from might help
Helpful..... Thanks.....
It was really only a matter of time, if this is true. Organized crime has been looking for ways
to defeat the authourities by going paperless.
ROFL...... I can print your entire transaction once it's logged. Nothing paperless about it... In fact, with a teeny bit of talent I can make your transaction look worse than it was when you started it. I'll take the paper.... It's easier to prove you messed with it..... ;)Quote:
Organized crime has been looking for ways to defeat the authourities by going paperless.
I did google "Organized Crime and Spam", and read several of the articles. So I posted some of the comments from a couple of them and included the SOURCES. But as you read the actual articles you will probably be left with the impression, well are they or are they not? The author of the first one made me think of the way some politicians flip-flop just prior to the elections :eek:
“Computer Viruses and Organized Crime: The Inside Story (Featuring Erik Laykin of OnlineSecurity)”
Author: Jack M. Germain
http://www.onlinesecurity.com/links/links613.phpQuote:
Internet security experts are divided on the source and purpose of computer viruses and worms like Blaster and SoBig. But some government agencies are investigating a possible connection between the increasing spread of infected computers and organized crime.
Investigations have not yielded definitive proof yet about links between viruses and organized crime...
Such theories have no credence. There are already plenty of open relays available. There are easier ways of spamming than risking prosecution [by planting back doors with the use of viruses and Internet worms]," said Jerry Brady, chief technology officer of Guardent, a managed security services and consulting services company.
"That business model just wouldn't fit," he said. "Spammers wouldn't want the notoriety."
http://www.accountancyage.com/News/1135797Quote:
Mafia muscles in on spam and viruses
By Iain Thomson [09-12-2003]
Organised crime is looking at how it can make money from spam and virus writing, which means attacks may become less common than now but more dangerous, according to a Russian antivirus expert.
Well I guess it's a definite "maybe" :rolleyes:
Cheers
:cool:
:)yes i forgot to in my first post, then posted it in the second one. You didn't read the thread no ?Quote:
Since tiDaLfAze23 wouldn't provide his source
Sorry I didn't catch that so I edited my post. Thanks.Quote:
yes i forgot to in my first post, then posted it in the second one. You didn't read the thread no ?
cheers
This isn't really anything new. skiddies and maybe higher level crackers have been making clusters of networked owned machines for years. I'm sure we've all heard of ddos attacks... Looks like some cracker became enlightened to the profitable possibilities of their owned machines. Does anyone really care about organized crime these days? oh no! the mafia wants to pirate my computer to run their online casino.
There are legit companies that pay home computer users to do mundane tasks like spidering the internet to find websites for search engines. There are also companies that pay users with high-speed internet access for planned ddos attacks to test a company's network.
To show you I'm not full of crap: http://www.capcal.com/ click "agent program" at the top menu.
:)No problems, the link below raises som interesting points how people should care about organised crimeQuote:
Sorry I didn't catch that so I edited my post. Thanks.
This link
Well actually they are connecting these computers together retreiving huge numbers of banking details and access passwords, and taking off with huge amounts of money from home and business users, here in oz many unsecured users are becoming victims in this organised crime project, that will,judging by the link above, be an ongoing and everexpanding issue....Quote:
oh no! the mafia wants to pirate my computer to run their online casino.
That bit sounds rather far-fetched to me.Quote:
"Evidence is coming to light that spammers and virus writers are in cahoots withorganised crime gangs to create malicious programs and viruses that turn your pc into a node of a giant worldwide network, to which access is sold"
1. It would be too easily penetrated/infiltrated
2. not enough money in it.
Where I have seen increasing numbers of reports/statistics is on the fraud side of things.
In that respect, the malware writer is no different from the people who are hired to steal automobiles or credit cards.
They are effectively a "service industry" to organised crime gangs
just my take on it :)
:)Just going on the evidence that's out there.Quote:
That bit sounds rather far-fetched to me.
After reading more about this subject, the more i read the more it did make sense. My take is,
you have the virus writers, who in some part are your average "look what i can do" teenager types, and then there are other writers who seem to be getting paid by the spammers to write viruses, It makes sense then,to organise this structure further by employing hackers(media definition) to break into machines to infect them with the viruses/trojans/dialers Next walks on in the crime gangs, with ample finances to buy this information and put it to work making money. Accessing banking details, credit card numbers and anything else that is of value.
Seems that this is a well run business and organised in a way that everyone is happy and gets paid in return.
Don't know how the spammers get their pay checks? Havn't researched that yet.[edit] o.k. they get paid by advertisers[edit] But the writers would be getting paid by the spammers, and the crime gangs, and the crime gangs would be reaping millions of $ from these infected machines sending them account details, passwords and credit card numbers.
Will do some more looking and update what i find.
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Aside from the growing organised crime element, there are still some who do it for the kudos in their community, so much so they have formed loose "gangs", usually between 16 and 26 years old.
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Motivated by financial gain, they are more and more likely to be working with spammers and hackers, says Paul Wood, chief security analyst at MessageLabs.
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The sophisticated, organised crime element however, is a more worrying development and something with which corporations and home-users alike should be concerned
source
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Detective Chief Superintendent Les Hynds, head of the UK's National Hi-Tech Crime Unit, told El Reg: "The trade of BotNets on compromised machines is becoming an industry in itself. Organised crime is making use of this industry.".
Quote:
The IP addresses of compromised machines are traded over IRC networks by either the virus authors themselves or middlemen with payments directed towards anonymous online accounts or (less frequently) via Western Union money transfers. In February German magazine c't reported how it was able to buy access to infected machines - commonly described in the parlance of spammers as "BotNets" - from virus writers.
sourceQuote:
Investigators are piecing together the complex relationships between the virus writers, middlemen and criminal gangs held largely responsible for the growth of spam in recent months.