An Economy Built On Cybercrime

Areport by F-Secure Security Labs shows that architects behind malicious
activities are seeking to build a sustainable commercial economy based on
carefully crafted security attacks.

The F-Secure Security Labs saw a steady flow of reports on a vast variety of
data security threats during the first half of 2007. These attacks target a
variety of unsuspecting user groups-consumers, companies and public sector
organizations.

Social engineering as a trend

Social engineering has developed to a new level of sophistication via the
Small.DAM Trojan, causing havoc via e-mail in January 2007. Masking itself under
the pretense of shocking headline news, linked to real-life events such as the
January storms in Europe, the Storm-Worm spread at an alarming speed across the
globe in just one night.

Banking industry soft target for phishing scams

As phishing defenses mature, attackers are also increasing and developing
their use of banking Trojans that are equipped with content filters to detect
when people bank online. As soon as banking activity is detected, the malware
begins to capture account details using methods such as the following:

•  Form grabbing
•  Screenshots
•  Video captures
•  Keylogging
•  Injection of form fields

Cyber war-a new phenomenon

Various Estonian websites (including sites owned by governmental
organizations, banks, and media outlets) were targeted via centralized
distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks. A vast amount of web traffic,
largely originating from Russia, was directed to the vulnerable sites leading to
very slow or disrupted service.

Mobile scammers

•  SMS spam: An SMS message was sent out with a URL that could
  only be accessed via a WAP gateway. The link was inaccessible via the
  computer. The URL in the SMS was connected to phones receiving the mobile
  device's number, implying that only that particular phone could use the link.
  Forwarding the message to another phone rendered it inaccessible.
•  SMS phishing: Many mobile users in the Asia Pacific region
  were 'lucky winners' in lotteries organized under the guise of local
  organization.
•  SMS trojan: Three new for-profit SMS trojans that affect
  mobile devices running Symbian S60 second edition, as well as older devices,
  were discovered in May.

There were samples of two 'interesting' new mobile spying tools-running on
new platforms: spyware for both Windows Mobile and Symbian S60 third edition
devices.

It is fairly alarming to see increasingly complex mobile trojans and spyware
being developed by growing commercial entities, making profits to support
further development of the malicious economy. For this reason, it is essential
to protect computers not only against viruses and worms, but also against any
suspicious activity that might be a sign of danger to PC network.