cybercrime

McAfee launches free online cybercrime help center

Is your computer acting funny? Are you worried that you may have visited a malicious Web site or opened an e-mail attachment with malware?

Instead of worrying about it you can now go to a new Web site McAfee is launching on Tuesday that is designed to help computer users figure out if they have legitimate reason to be concerned.

The new Cybercrime Response Unit offers a forensic scanning tool that checks for malware on the computer and cookies left by suspicious Web sites to help determine if the machine has been compromised. A toll-free number is available for people … Read more

To catch a (cyber) thief: It's not easy

SAN FRANCISCO--The FBI agent whose undercover sting operation led to the dismantling of an international cybercrime ring believes that increasing transnational police cooperation is turning the tide against digital criminals.

J. Keith Mularski, a special agent who works in the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Cyber Division, says that when it comes to fighting cybercrime, the bad guys may still hold a technological upper hand but that the good guys are getting better.

"We're not far behind," says Mularski, who spent a couple of years infiltrating a crime network that offered a range of stolen data--including credit … Read more

Data breaches cost $6.6 million on average, survey finds

It costs $6.6 million on average when an organization suffers a data breach, and more than $200 per compromised record, according to a survey conducted by the Ponemon Institute that's due to be released on Monday.

The report, sponsored by PGP Corp., examined the costs incurred by 43 organizations that experienced a data breach. Breaches ranged as high as 113,000 records and the average total cost per company ranged from more than $613,000 per breach to nearly $32 million.

Most of the cost is due to lost business, which averaged nearly $4.6 million, the report … Read more

Study: Cybercriminals cashing in on economic slide

Amid the global downturn in the economy, cybercrminals appear to be winning in the war against law enforcement. That's the sobering conclusion drawn by a panel of experts in a report from McAfee released Tuesday.

"We saw the cybercriminals take advantage of economic messaging very, very quickly," said Dave Marcus, director of security research and communications for McAfee Avert Labs. He said cybercriminals are cashing in on consumer anxiety, particularly around the holidays and noted that as more and more people go online looking for better deals, criminals are preying on their inexperience in order to lure … Read more

Europe to get cybercrime alert system

Europe is getting a cybercrime alert system as part of a European Union drive to fight online criminals.

According to plans, European law enforcement body Europol will receive 300,000 euros ($386,430) to build an alert system that pools reports of cybercrime, such as online identification and financial theft, from across the 27 member states.

Police will launch more remote searches of suspects' hard drives over the Internet, as well as cyberpatrols to spot and track illegal activity, under the strategy adopted by the European Union's council of ministers Thursday.

The strategy, a blueprint for fighting cybercrime in … Read more

Report: Mom in MySpace hoax found guilty on lesser charges

Lori Drew, the Missouri woman who created a fake MySpace profile that she allegedly used to harass a teenage girl to the point of suicide, was convicted of three offenses far more minor than the ones she could have been, the Associated Press wrote Wednesday.

Drew, indicted in May by a federal court after Missouri prosecutors could not find evidence of a state crime, had been charged with one count of conspiracy and three counts of "accessing protected computers without authorization to obtain information to inflict emotional distress."

On Wednesday, a federal jury in Los Angeles failed to … Read more

Symantec says Internet underground economy is organized and rich

Did you know that you can buy a keystroke logger for $23 or pay $10 to have someone host your phishing scam? Having a botnet at your fingertips will cost you $225, and a tool that exploits a vulnerability on a banking site averages $740 and runs as high as $3,000.

That's according to the Symantec Report on the Internet Underground Economy due to be released Monday.

Symantec researchers spent a year observing the chat among cybercriminals on IRC channels and forums on the Internet between July 1, 2007 and June 30, 2008 and were able to piece … Read more

1 Trojan + 3 years = 500,000 online financial accounts

RSA FraudAction Research Lab has discovered log-in information for about 300,000 online bank accounts and 250,000 credit and debit card accounts that have been gathered by a cybercrime gang over the past three years using the Sinowal Trojan.

"This may be one of the most pervasive and advanced pieces of crimeware ever created by fraudsters," according to a blog entry posted Friday from RSA, EMC's security unit.

The Sinowal Trojan infects computers without the owner knowing it by surrepticiously planting itself onto the computer while the owner is Web surfing in an attack dubbed a &… Read more

Security Bites 119: Does the Internet need its own Interpol?

In this week's Security Bites podcast, Robert Vamosi spoke with Patrik Runald, chief security adviser at F-Secure, about the need for a new international agency to handle cybercrime. Although there have been several high-profile arrests--such as that of "Chao," an alleged Turkish ATM skimmer-- Runald said, "the message we're sending today is not enough."

With a budget of only about $90 million (U.S.), Interpol was created, in part, to fight drug trafficking and human trafficking worldwide, and now it has taken on Internet crimes without any direct increase in funding. Runald concludes, &… Read more