Cyberattackers going for money now
22nd March 2006 (The Star)
BY CHRISTY LEE S. W.
PETALING JAYA: Cyberattacks are becoming even more focused on making money than making headlines, according to Internet security specialist Symantec Corp. In its latest biannual Internet Security Threat Report (ISTR) covering the six-month period from July 1 to Dec 31 last year, the company reported that instead of destroying personal data, attackers are now more interested in stealing data for use in cybercrimes. "Hackers used to do it for glory, but in the past six months we've observed that they now do it for financial gain," said Ong Kah Wooi, technical consultant manager at Symantec Malaysia. He noted that cyberattackers have also changed the manner of their attacks and have switched to stealthier methods. He said the codes today are designed to steal data without doing noticeable damage so that the victims will not notice the intrusion. Ong cited one popular way to deploy malicious code - through "bot networks," or programs that provide attackers unauthorised access and control of a computer. Once an attacker plants the "bot" program in a PC, the infected system can be used to launch further attacks on other systems, he said. Kol Husin Jazri, director of the National ICT Security and Emergency Response Centre (Niser) agreed with the ISTR findings. "Our analysis at Niser as well as those from other security organisations around the region also points to the same trend," he said. According to Symantec, the United States has the highest number of bot-infected computers in the world at 26%. In Asia Pacific, Malaysia is ranked No 9, with 1% bot-infected computers. Kannan Velayutham, enterprise security consultant at Symantec Malaysia, said the reason for this was probably because of the low broadband penetration rate in the country. "There is still a fairly large number of users in Malaysia who use dial-up connections. This does not provide enough bandwidth and time for bot networks to establish and coordinate attacks," he said. |
