Cybercrooks ramp up against antivirus firms--and each other

Iria · Apr 4, 2006, 10:57 PM

Cybercriminals are increasingly fighting each other, as well as antivirus vendors, in pursuit of illegal gain, Kaspersky Lab has warned.

The antivirus provider said Tuesday that as profits from cybercrime grew in 2005, criminals increasingly tried to prevent antivirus providers from developing protection against the latest threats. "Honeypots," or lightly protected systems set up to collect samples of malicious software for antivirus companies, were a prime target, Kaspersky said.

Criminals can use legions of compromised "zombie" computers, called "botnets," to bombard honeypot networks with data to hinder or stop them working, according to Kaspersky's "Malware Evolution: 2005, Part 2" report, published Monday.

"If the bad guys are aware of a network that looks suspicious because it's too unprotected--to lure bad code--they can take steps like launching (distributed denial-of-service) attacks against that honeypot network. They can then launch other attacks simultaneously (against other targets)," said David Emm, senior technology consultant for Kaspersky.
___________
Read More / Source: News.com

Apr 4, 2006, 10:57 PM	#1
Iria DriverHeaven Extreme Member Join Date: Apr 2004 Posts: 7,275 Rep Power: 89	Cybercrooks ramp up against antivirus firms--and each other Cybercriminals are increasingly fighting each other, as well as antivirus vendors, in pursuit of illegal gain, Kaspersky Lab has warned. The antivirus provider said Tuesday that as profits from cybercrime grew in 2005, criminals increasingly tried to prevent antivirus providers from developing protection against the latest threats. "Honeypots," or lightly protected systems set up to collect samples of malicious software for antivirus companies, were a prime target, Kaspersky said. Criminals can use legions of compromised "zombie" computers, called "botnets," to bombard honeypot networks with data to hinder or stop them working, according to Kaspersky's "Malware Evolution: 2005, Part 2" report, published Monday. "If the bad guys are aware of a network that looks suspicious because it's too unprotected--to lure bad code--they can take steps like launching (distributed denial-of-service) attacks against that honeypot network. They can then launch other attacks simultaneously (against other targets)," said David Emm, senior technology consultant for Kaspersky. ___________ Read More / Source: News.com