Criminals Hack With More Evil Tactics

There was a time when hackers released viruses, worms and trojans just to create malware, a collective term for computer crimes. But now malware is even more wicked, says cyber security analyst Neil Sindicich. 14wfie published this on March 30, 2007.

One of the most common crimes is to create botnets. In that a hacker compromises an army of computers by controlling them with his own PC. He then connects all the compromised computers called zombies to form a network called botnet. The botnet halts the functioning of the earlier independent PCs whose owners do not even realize it. The statement appeared in Woai on April 2, 2007.

The criminals use these botnets to send out junk e-mails in bulk called spam.

Hackers further use social engineering methods in their attacks and they are working quite well. Such hacking attempts target online retailers.

Sindicich further says, these hacking groups target online retailers and force them to pay money or else find their systems down. Understandably these retailers are largely inclined to give up extortion fees than to involve law enforcement. For, they think that takes a long time for processing although stopping the incident from happening but eventually adding up to considerable money loss. 14wfie published this on March 30, 2007.

People with nasty intent can install malicious program on a computer and record all keystroke that a user enters on that PC. In this way a remote control on somebody's computer can affect his/ her pocketbook.

In trying to recover from such a situation, according to Sindicich, the merchandise cost shoots up. So, the consumer assesses the cost and finds more divergent issues.

However, experts have advised users about protecting themselves. They say measures should extend further to installing protective solutions. anti-virus and firewall programs can assist in protecting computers from malware and avoid them from becoming one of the PCs in a botnet. The next important thing is to obtain the latest updates. Computer viruses behave similarly like human viruses i.e., their newer versions keep getting stronger than the earlier ones, as published by Woai on April 2, 2007.

Related article: Criminals Make Bots Out of Compromised PCs

» SPAMfighter News - 4/10/2007