Organized cybercrime replaces random individual attacks

Targeted and organized, profit-driven attacks are replacing random individual hacker attacks and presenting increased threats for businesses and government, says the Information Security Forum (ISF). This new breed of attack, designed to steal valuable and sensitive information or customer data for major financial gain is being orchestrated by criminal networks that bring together specialist skills and expertise. Many even place sleepers within organizations to provide inside knowledge and access.

Profit-driven attacks have five phases: Reconnaissance to identify targets; Development to plan the attack and write malware; Extraction of the data; Exploitation by advertising and selling stolen information; and finally Laundering of the profits. Normally, there is a different person or team running each phase, often operating from different parts of the world, making it extremely difficult to track and trace. Each group takes a slice of the profits with the criminal ringleaders reaping the largest rewards – that can run into millions.

Typically, profit-driven attacks are targeted at high value organizations or individuals. Spear phishing is a common social-engineering technique used to seek out data such as bank details or access credentials from groups of customers or employees that can then be sold online. So called Whaling targets hand-picked individuals, such as wealthy billionaires and CEOs or those with privileged access rights like database administrators. The results of the last ISF Security Status Survey in 2007 showed a 50% increase in social engineering attacks in two years.

Cybercrime is the fastest growing type of crime and is considered by the US Treasury to have exceeded the profits of illicit drug sales. Credit card fraud alone was estimated at $3.6 billion last year but in addition, companies failing to put in place the correct security procedures are also subject to penalties from financial institutions including the SEC, FSA and EEA. Not to mention civil lawsuits and unforeseen costs to implement emergency procedures.