Cisco survey: Cybercriminals becoming more business savvy

Cybercriminals are becoming more business savvy in their efforts to profit by worming into business networks to steal passwords and other sensitive data, according to a recent security survey from Cisco [1]. In this report [2] from colleague Tim Greene, he explains that the Cisco survey finds crackers selling their malware start-up kits online are hiring quality-assurance testers for their malicious code, as well as botnets for quick distribution.

The evil doers are also profiting by selling start-up kits to other cybercriminals. A Zeus Trojan [3] kit for stealing login data is available for $700, Greene reports.  

The efforts are as impressive as they are dastardly: Cisco for the first time is passing out awards for the most prolific infections. The Most Audacious Criminal Operation honor went to Zeus, which has infected an estimated 4 million machines and includes a versatile botnet that could be used for a variety of attacks.

The Most Notable Criminal Innovation is Koobface [4], Greene reports, a worm that lures users to a YouTube video that encourages Flash player updates. The updates they download are actually the worm that gathers sensitive information from infected machines.

Koobface is an example of a worm that exploits social network sites, which account for 2% of workplace Web traffic, the Cisco survey states. So beware the social networker at work...

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