Criminal computer attacks up

Cash, not notoriety, now main draw, Sophos says

Jim Jamieson
Province

Writers of malicious code are increasingly motivated by financial gain, not notoriety, says a 12-month review to be released today by global antivirus company Sophos.

The Security Threat Management 2005 report said organized crime is playing a increasing role in the distribution of so-called malware.

Martha Stuart, a Sophos senior security consultant, said that, as the Internet has become more commonly used, criminals have joined forced to produce multi-threat campaigns that co-ordinate viruses, spam, phishing and spyware.

"There is the ability to gain quite a bit of financial success from creating this type of malware," said Stuart. "As people are using the Internet more, they are seeing quite a lucrative activity when they get into a computer that they can control, whether it's financial information, denial of service attacks or other activity."

Financial institutions alone are reported to have lost $400 million US in 2004 due to phishing. Phishing is an attempt through electronic communication to scam a person or group into revealing such things as passwords and credit-card numbers.

Stuart said Sophos has seen the number of attacks increase 48 per cent over the previous year.

The company, which has a large development and sales office in Vancouver, saw 15,907 new threats in 2005, compared to 10,724 the previous year.

© The Vancouver Province 2005