Finjan says cybercrime now more profitable

By Alan Harten

Finjan Inc., manufacturer of secure web gateway products, today announced the latest findings by its Malicious Code Research Centre (MCRC).

In its latest trends report for Q2 2008, the MCRC identifies and analyzes the latest Crimeware business operations, and provides an insider’s look at the organizational structure of Cybercrime organizations.

The report seems to indicate that cybercrime is mimicking traditional organised crime of the American Mafia or Chinese Triad variety.

These began as a disorganised group of criminal associates and eventually grew into a viable organisation with a structure that emulates legitimate corporate bodies.

The only big difference is the great speed with which these cyber-mafia organisations are becoming organised.

Instead of taking years or decades to mature these cyber-criminals are becoming ‘professional’ in a matter of months..

The report includes real documented discussions conducted by Finjan’s researchers with resellers of stolen data and their “bosses”, confirming Finjan’s analysis of the current state of the cybercrime economy.

“Over the course of the last 18 months we have been watching the profit-driven Cybercrime market maturing rapidly.

It has evolved into a booming business, operating in a major shadow economy with an organizational structure that closely mimics the real business world.

This makes businesses today even more vulnerable for cybercrime attacks, especially considering the maturity of the cybercrime market and its well-structured cybercrime organizations,” said Yuval Ben-Itzhak, Finjan’s CTO.

“Recent industry reports containing record numbers of malware infections during the first half of 2008 alone underline again the huge impact of cybercrime on today’s businesses.”

Malware can range from inconvenient and frustrating bugs on personal PCs right up to a nightmare for IT executives across the globe.

All kinds of spyware problems, adware intrusions, hacker tool problems and destructive virus attacks can cause very serious loss of time for overstretched technicians and also large amounts of revenue loss though downtime and loss of confidence amongst clients.

The report explores the trend of loosely organized clusters of hackers trading stolen data online, being replaced by hierarchical cybercrime organizations.

These organizations deploy sophisticated pricing models, Crimeware business models refined for optimal operation, Crimeware drop zones, and campaigns for optimal distribution of the Crimeware.

These cybercrime organizations consist of strict hierarchies, in which each cybercriminal is rewarded according to his position and task.

The “boss” in the cybercrime organization operates as a business entrepreneur and does not commit the cybercrimes himself.

Directly under him is the “underboss”, acting as the second in command and managing the operation.

This individual provides the Trojans for attacks and manages the Command and Control (C&C) of those Trojans.

“Campaign managers” reporting to the underboss lead their own attack campaigns.

They use their own “affiliation networks” as distribution channels to perform the attacks and steal the data.

The stolen data is sold by “resellers”, who are not involved in the Crimeware attacks themselves.

As a preventative measure, businesses should look closely at their security practices to make sure they are protected.

A layered security approach is a highly effective way of handling these latest threats, and applying innovative security solutions, such as real-time content inspection, designed to detect and handle them is a key factor is being adequately protected.

About MCRC
Malicious Code Research Centre (MCRC) is a research department at Finjan, dedicated to the research and detection of security vulnerabilities in Internet applications, as well as other popular programs.

MCRC’s goal is to stay steps ahead of hackers attempting to exploit open platforms and technologies to develop malicious code such as Spyware, Trojans, Phishing attacks, worms and viruses.

About Finjan
Finjan is a provider of web security solutions for the enterprise market; real-time, appliance-based web security solutions deliver a shield against web-borne threats, freeing enterprises to harness the web for maximum commercial results.

Finjan’s real-time web security solutions utilize patented behaviour-based technology to repel all types of threats arriving via the web, such as spyware, phishing, Trojans and obfuscated malicious code, securing businesses against unknown and emerging threats, as well as known malware.

http://www.britemedia.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?p=1918#post1918
http://www.computereconomics.com/page.cfm?name=Malware%20Report
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