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| Phishing gang arrested in Germany |
| Saturday, December 18, 2004 at 13:25 by Laurence Norah |
Members of a suspected phishing gang based in Germany have been arrested, according to Sophos. The gang, made up of five men, are said to have stolen around 30,000 Euros from customers of Postbank. A sixth man, also suspected to be part of the gang, has disappeared.
Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant for Sophos, made the following comments:
"Most people are familiar now with the phishing scams which arrive via email and lead you to a bogus banking website. However, we are increasingly seeing organised criminals writing Trojan horses to monitor the activity of innocent computer users - and wait for them to visit a legitimate banking website before stealing the essential login information. Computer crime authorities around the world need to work closely with each other to break apart these criminal gangs and bring them to justice."
The phishing attacks in question are thought to have taken place earlier this year, with the gang looking to obtain passwords and other login information. They were clearly quite successful, as the 30,000 Euro price tag shows. As always we'd advise you to keep your anti-virus software up to date and be incredibly wary of any request seeming to come from a bank or other service which asks you for confidential information.
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| I wonder why one of the high-tech anti-virus technicians have not yet explored the idea of hiring an FBI specialist in psychological profiles to examining the backgrounds of all the dumbos who have been convicted of fouling up the works for everyone else. There must be a pattern that is common to all of these would-be stars. Rather than try to fight every virus as it comes out, which will be a never ending task, divert some of the budget to being able to predict the kind of person who craves anonymity and publicity at the same time. Many a crime has been solved by profile specialists. Why not spend a few million of the multi-billions that are spent by everyone from Symantec to Microsoft to ....? |
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| if they solve the worldwide virus problem, how would they make their money? Far easier to fight off the viruses and charge to do it than stop it all together. But i could just be cynical :) |
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| After you spend the time, money, and build the "profile"... then what? |
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Here is one such profile:
"Virus writing is easier to understand if you compare it to forms of delinquency such as graffiti or vandalism.
Virus writers tend to be male, under 25 and single. Their self-esteem is bound up with the approval of their peer group, or at least of a small electronic community. Virus-writing exploits, like graffiti art, are a kind of performance that wins the writer status.
Viruses also give their writers powers in cyberspace that they could never hope have in the real world. No doubt that's why virus writers choose names inspired by heavy metal music or fantasy literature, which thrive on similar illusions of prowess and potency." |
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