Cyber Crime

Allow me to frame the threat of cybercrime that we all face by quoting from Jeff Debrosse’s 2009 Cybersecurity Review white paper: Cybercriminals are global and often well organized. They are smaller and more maneuverable than most corporations. Some are sheltered by certain G8 economic countries’ policies and laws. Their thefts fuel their home country’s

A couple of weeks ago I posted an entry on here about the size of the cybercrime problem from a dollar perspective. I pointed out that is was reported that US banks had lost US$40 million per month for the third quarter of 2009 due to online banking fraud. Also, the 2009 Internet Crime Report

A flurry of long-overdue government initiatives designed to address cybercrime has begun to actually develop some momentum. When I consider that it took a year to just get a cybersecurity bill through committee, I think of Nero fiddling while Rome burns, especially when everyone on the committee appears to believe it’s critical legislation. The CyberSecurity

Two weeks ago I acted as a panelist in a panel discussion at an IT Security conference in Kuala Lumpur. I was asked a question about global cybercrime laws. And I’ve just read Randy Abrams’ blog that he posted here today about the proposed new US legislation that is ultimately aimed at driving other nations

The Anti-Phishing Working Group has asked its members to publicize the forthcoming Counter eCrime Operations Summit in Brazil, which I’m pleased to do. This year the APWG is hosting it’s fourth annual Counter eCrime Operations Summit (CeCOS IV) on May 11, 12 & 13 in São Paulo, Brazil.  The Discounted Early Bird Registration rate will

We have recently seen some reports that give some idea of the real size of the cybercrime problem. Recently Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) Examiner Dave Nelson reported that online banking fraud involving the electronic transfer of funds cost US banks more than $40 million dollars per month for the third quarter of 2009. The

While serving in the Marine Corps, one activity that I felt was effective in preparing both myself and my unit to be able to handle real-world scenarios, was getting as much experience as possible from military training exercises. In most cases multiple branches worked together or, as in the case with NATO exercises, multiple countries

Two new papers have gone up on the ESET White Papers page at http://www.eset.com/download/whitepapers.php. (Strictly speaking, they’re not altogether new: they include some material that has previously been blogged here.) The Internet Book of the Dead is a bit different from other papers you’ll find on the ESET white papers page. (Technically, it’s not actually

You may have gathered from some of the blogs published here last year that i’m not biggest fan of the BBC’s “Click” programme. I regard the Beeb’s forays into buying botnets and stolen credit card details and making active use of them as at best naive. I agree that people need to be aware of such issues,

I wanted to share with you some more results from the cybercrime survey ESET commission and recently released. You can find the entire report at http://www.eset.com/company/CERC_Poll_2009_Oct.pdf. 57% of American computer owners now bank online, however the more money a person makes the more likely they are to bank online. 2/3rds of computer owners who earn

Cyber Monday is the Monday that follows Thanksgiving in the USA. This is said to be the busiest online shopping day of the year. Does that mean that there is more risk of cybercrime? The answer is yes and no. There is more risk simply because more people are shopping online so malicious web pages,

Recently I blogged (Once Upon A Cybercrime…) about a survey ESET commissioned which indicated that Mac users are victims of cybercrime as often as PC users. This finding was not the main point of the survey, but was an interesting finding. The survey is titled “Securing Our e-City National Cybercrime Survey” and was commissioned to

I recently learned a new acronym: SODDI (Some Other Dude Did It). What this refers to is the defense that criminals routinely use (plausible deniability) – and even more so when it comes to illicit activities on the Internet. On Sunday, November 8th 2009 the Associated Press published an article regarding an individual that was

As usual, ESET has released its monthly Global Threat Trends Report, which will be available in due course at http://www.eset.com/threat-center/index.php. There are no surprises in the top five malicious programs, which have the same rankings as in the September report. Clearly, not enough people are taking our accumulated advice on reducing the risk from Conficker,

For many years banks and credit card vendors have accepted that there will be some amount of fraud and built those costs in to the operational model. The thinking goes that if the loss is small enough then it isn’t worth pursuing so they simply pass the cost on to the public through fee structures,

I was quoted last month in an article at PC Retail (http://www.pcr-online.biz/features/305/The-truth-about-cyber-crime), which is nice. However, I just came across the notes I made at the time of the original enquiry/interview, most of which wasn’t used, so here are my full responses to the questions Andrew Wooden asked, in case they’re of interest. (Actually, they’re slightly expanded and I’ve

The Wall Street Journal recently ran an interesting article at http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125487044221969127.html. Of note, was a quote from Los Angeles District Attorney Steve Cooley who said “These days, “practically every crime, from drug dealing to murder, involves digital evidence” .From the invention of the knife, to the gun, to the telephone and car, criminals have always

“Now may I suggest some of the things we must do if we are to make the American dream a reality. First, I think all of us must develop a world perspective if we are to survive. The American dream will not become a reality devoid of the larger dream of brotherhood and peace and

Bonjour mes amis! Well, I am in Switzerland, and very close to the French border, for the Virus Bulletin conference – perhaps the most eagerly anticipated event in the anti-malware researcher’s calendar. How sad is that? I also thought you might like to further extend your French skills on an article here, about a presentation

Mac security firm Intego blogged about Apple’s decision to include an antimalware component in Mac OS X 10.6 “Snow Leopard” and we agree that it is a good step, security-wise, to provide some basic protection against malware.  Apple has long mocked Microsoft, up to and including this 2006 advertisement which implied there were no viruses

The results (released yesterday) from a study conducted by the Ponemon Institute yielded some interesting data points. The most visible of these was the finding that 85% of U.S. organizations experienced data breaches of varying magnitudes. This study, entitled “U.S. Enterprise Encryption Trends”, has completed its fourth annual publication.  The data was directly obtained from