Cyber Criminals Becoming More Professional

[Source: Symantec Corporation]

Cyber crime is turning into a professional business, according to Symantec’s latest Internet Security Threat Report. The report, which outlines activity from Jan. 1, 2007 through June 30, 2007, indicates phishing scammers are using more professional attack methods. More attackers are being driven by fortune, the report indicates, instead of fame. Rather than seeking out individual targets, the report indicates today’s cyber criminals are waiting for their victims to come to them with 61 percent of all vulnerabilities disclosed in Web applications. Using business-like practices, credit cards were the most commonly advertised commodity on underground economy servers, comprising 22 percent of all advertisements. In addition, with online gaming one of the most popular Internet activities, malicious code that attempted to steal account information for online games made up 5 percent of the top 50 malicious code samples.