McAfee's Annual Report on Cybercrime
Last week, security software vendor McAfee released its third annual Virtual Criminology report. The company hired researchers from Britain and the United States to examine global cybercrime trends and emerging threats.
The team made four primary conclusions:
- Countries around the world, including the U.S., are increasingly using the Web as a "weapon for political, military and economic espionage" by using cyberattacks to spy on and interfere with other governments' critical infrastructure.
- Consumer confidence and trust is threatened by the fact that hackers are using more sophisticated techniques to target Internet users, combining social engineering with phishing. Cybercriminals are also doing more to take advantage of people using VoIP, peer-to-peer file sharing and social networking sites.
- There is a thriving "cybercrime economy" in which hackers buy and sell software, services and support that are used to commit cyberattacks. As a result, it's no longer necessary for a cybercriminal to have computer skills, and malware writers are able to create cybercrime tools for sale without actually committing the attack themselves.
- In the future, it's likely that some countries will become known as safe havens for cybercriminals, and international cooperation -- though difficult to achieve at times -- will play a vital role in thwarting hackers.
The report was not without controversey, however. According to the Associated Press, the Chinese government disputed aspects of the study that claimed China had engaged in cyber warfare against other nations. The report quoted James Mulvenon of the Center for Intelligence and Research in D.C. as saying that China was the first country to "use cyberattacks for political and military goals."
However, the researchers also made it clear that China is not alone, and that there may even be a "cyber cold war" brewing given that an estimated 120 countries are working on cyberattack commands.
For more, you can download a 21-page PDF of the report. Published November 30, 2007.
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