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The Web Mob

According to this article on eWeek , organized crime on the internet is rising, with a dramatic increase in rootkits, Trojans and botnets. Evidence gathered over the last two years shows that well-organized mobsters have taken control of billion-dollar crime networks, powered by skilled hackers and money mules targeting known software security weakneses.

It appears that much of the activity is connected to the Russian mafia and loosley linked groups around the world. In Russia there have been documented cases where physical torture has been used to recruit hackers, as they state:

If you become a known hacker and you start to cut into their profits, they'll come to your house, take you away and beat you to a pulp until you back off or join them. There have been documented cases of this.

They also discuss spyware that is being used that has not been detected by anti-virus, some like “MetaFisher” which spread to thousands of computers went undetected for more than a year. Black hat hackers have even setup eCommerce sites offering private exploits capable of evading anti-virus scanners. There have even been job listings on Russian-language sites offering lucrative pay for coders who can create exploits and launch DOS attacks, or the hiring of skilled hackers to steal corporate data on behalf of competitors.

Comments

Anonymous said…
Russians are a bunch of little girls with their panties up their you know whats. I've been a hacker for years now and no one has ever caught on to me. I have not worked in over 6 years because I'm a true pirate and my income solely from others. If they knew how much me and my friends pull in a year they probably would come....but we would be waiting with open "arms"!
February 20, 2009 8:32 AM
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