Cybercriminals are settling into a comfortable place in the “Dark Web” where they test, refine and distribute malware for online crimes.
It sounds sinister, and it is. Big Brother is breaching your privacy, and terrorists and criminals are busy with a practice called astroturfing — creating the false impression that there’s huge grassroots support for some cause or person using false user accounts. It’s a big problem in elections and other types of political conflicts.
Automated tools to collect and analyse terrorist content from the Internet have been developed. like Truthy, a free tool for analysing how information spreads on Twitter that has been useful in spotting astroturfing.
McAfee, the US Internet security specialist, also noted that a huge data breach that affected as many as 110 million customers of the US retailer Target may also be just the tip of the iceberg.
In its quarterly threat assessment released Monday, McAfee Labs noted the relative ease with which this type of malware is bought and sold in “Dark Web” marketplaces.
McAfee researchers concluded that the malware for the Target attacks used “relatively unsophisticated technologies likely purchased ‘off the shelf’ from the Cybercrime-as-a-Service community, and customized specifically for these attacks,” the security firm said.
The report pointed out that the attackers who stole the data have also found a market — offering some of the 40 million credit card numbers reported stolen in batches of between one million and four million at a time.
“The fourth quarter of 2013 will be remembered as the period when cybercrime became ‘real’ for more people than ever before,” said Vincent Weafer, senior vice president for McAfee Labs.
“These cyber thefts occurred at a time when most people were focused on their holiday shopping and when the industry wanted people to feel secure and confident in their purchases. The impact of these attacks will be felt both at the kitchen table as well as the boardroom table.”
Weafer added that the attacks “represent a coming of age for both Cybercrime-as-a-Service and the ‘Dark Web’ overall.”
The “Dark Web” actors appear to be operating with ease, like other kinds of online businesses, McAfee said.
“But the big lesson is that we face a healthy and growing cybercrime industry which played a key role in enabling and monetizing the results of these attacks.”
Source: rawstory.com