Criminal gangs, not teenagers, are Net's no.1 enemy

By Stuart Finlayson

Dec 13, 2004: The vast majority of malicious software now in circulation across the Internet is written by organised criminals in an attempt to extort money, rather than the commonly perceived mischievous teenager.

The darker side of the Internet was exposed by Russian antivirus company Kaspersky Labs in its annual review, and according to the company, the problem is going to get worse, with the lack of security and policing of the Internet attracting criminals from around the world.

Only 10 percent of all the malware doing the rounds has been created by teenagers, with the remaining 90 percent by criminal gangs, the review states. It also concludes that most of the malware that has been endured this year was a development and refinement of code that has been seen before but with some interesting new trends, particularly the use of links in emails as an alternative to attached files.

David Emm, Senior Technology Consultant, Kaspersky Lab notes in the review: "So far, emails containing links have not been treated with suspicion by recipients, many of whom are much more likely to follow a link than they are to double-click an attachment. In addition, this method effectively 'skips over' the perimeter defences deployed at the Internet gateway by many enterprises.

"Much of today's malware is a composite 'bundle' containing several pieces of code. Increasingly this includes a Trojan of one kind or another. Typically Trojans are dropped onto the system by a virus or worm. Since Trojans do not have their own on-board replication capability, they are often perceived as being less dangerous than viruses or worms. Yet their effects can be dangerous and far-reaching. Not only are they becoming more sophisticated, they are also being put to an increasing number of malicious uses."

The commercialisation of the use of malware and the ever increasing involvement of dangerous international criminal gangs is a worrying trend. The use of Trojans to steal confidential data, to launch DDoS attacks and to distribute spam email has added this further sinister dimension to the problem. Emm added: "It's clear that the computer underground has realised the potential for making money from their creations in a wired world."

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