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More IT Pros Could Turn To E-Crime In Poor Economy

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on Fri Mar 27, 2009 03:03 PM
from the what-would-mitnick-do dept.
snydeq writes to mention that a recent survey by KPMG shows that many people feel that out-of-work IT workers will be much more tempted to turn to criminal activities due to the down economy. This, coupled with an E-crime survey that shows fraud committed by managers, employees, and customers tripled between 2007 and 2008 paints an interesting picture. "In other survey results, 45 percent of respondents who handle critical national infrastructure said they are seeing an increase in the number of attacks on their systems. Fifty-one percent of respondents from the same category said the technical sophistication of those attacks is getting better. Sixty-eight percent said that of all kinds of malicious code they felt Trojan horse programs — ones that are designed to look harmless but can steal data along with other functions — had the most impact on their businesses. Rootkits are the next highest concern, followed by spyware, worms, viruses, mobile malicious code and, finally, adware."
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[+] Data Breaches Rose Sharply In 2008 43 comments
snydeq writes "According to the Identity Theft Resource Center, more than 35 million data records were breached in the US in 2008. Tracking media reports and disclosures companies are required to make by law, the ITRC noted a 47 percent increase in breaches last year at a range of well-known US companies and government entities. The majority of the lost data was neither encrypted nor protected by a password. A third of the breaches occurred at business entities. One in six breaches were attributed to insider theft, a figure that more than doubled between 2007 and 2008, ITRC said."
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  • Heh (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Niris (1443675) on Friday March 27, @03:06PM (#27361779)
    This is kind of a duh thing, isn't it? When the economy goes south, crime of all sorts that leads to profit increases. There just happens to be a lot of people out there with enough background knowledge in IT to make a profit off of criminal acts in IT.
    • Re:Heh (Score:5, Funny)

      by JustOK (667959) on Friday March 27, @03:11PM (#27361867) Journal

      They're just trying to write their own bonus packages, much like the execs did.

    • There just happens to be a lot of people out there with enough background knowledge in IT to make a profit off of criminal acts in IT.

      Also, there is no suck thing as "E-Crime".

      Unless you want to say an axe murderer is only a misguided tree cutting professional.

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward

      Not really. I'd just say, "When economy is bad, crime increases."

      I expect IT people are probably less susceptible to layoff than, say, warehouse laborers. I'd also guess that they're generally more honest than your average employee since they're often in a position where they need to be.

      So really, I'd guess there will be more crime all around, but a disproportionately low percentage of it will come from out-of-work IT people.

      Long in short, article is total FUD.

  • Financial Pros already managed to turn crime into a poor economy.
  • by Narpak (961733) on Friday March 27, @03:10PM (#27361841)
    Once a person out of desperation, or greed, turns to crime to make money for the necessities of life; it is only natural that they use whatever skills they have to the task. An increase in unemployment among IT professionals, and a tough job-marked all around, this sort of development don't surprise me.
  • by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 27, @03:17PM (#27361967)

    "You have two options: unemployment or early retirement."

  • by Jonas Buyl (1425319) on Friday March 27, @03:19PM (#27361989)
    So if 45% says the attacks are on the rise that means 55% said attacks are getting less or equally frequent, right? The 51% is pretty much the same thing. Some analysis you got there.
    • Yup, apparently 77% thinks that attacks are getting less sophisticated.

      This is the epitome of Sloshdat reporting: Take some bogus statistics and then jump to absolutely any conclusion you want, irrespective of what the numbers mean.

    • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

      If you survey 100 people who were mugged once last year about how many times they have been mugged this year and 50% said the same (lets say 1) and 50% said increased to 2, then you would have a 50% increase (from 100 to 150 total) this year. So yeas, these stats can be perfectly valid.
  • Mr. Joe Plomber
    Representative, Accounting Department.
    AIG, United States

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  • by cryfreedomlove (929828) on Friday March 27, @03:32PM (#27362201)
    I'm not buying this story at all. I live and work in Silicon Valley. I do see lots of folks getting laid off at a higher rate than in the past. At the same time, I see the same folks quickly finding new work. Sometimes it involves a pay cut, often it does not. I just don't see IT in this area being affected as deeply as other professions in other parts of the country. It is not bad enough in IT that good people are turning to lives of crime to make ends meet.
  • by GPLDAN (732269) on Friday March 27, @03:39PM (#27362287)
    The problem is all inside your head, my manager said to me
    The answer is easy if you take it logically
    Id like to help you in your struggle to be free
    There must be fifty ways to leave your employer
    He said its really not my habit to intrude
    Furthermore, I hope my meaning wont be lost or misconstrued
    But Ill repeat myself at the risk of being crude
    There must be fifty ways to leave your employer
    Fifty ways to leave your employer


    Just slip a virus out the back, jack
    Make a new botnet plan, stan
    You dont need to be coy, roy
    Just get yourself free with stolen accounts!
    Hop on the ddos bus, gus
    You dont need to discuss much
    Just drop off the encryption key, lee
    And get yourself free
    He said it grieves me so to see you in such pain
    I wish there was something I could do to make you smile again
    I said I appreciate that and would you please explain
    why the fuck you laid me off


    He said why dont we both just sleep on it tonight
    And I believe in the morning youll begin to see the light
    And then he blew me off and I realized he probably was right
    There must be fifty ways to leave your employer
    Fifty ways to leave your employer
  • ePrison for committing an eCrime.

  • that tagged this story "eHamburglar", but I want to thank you. For whatever reason, that struck me so funny that I laughed out loud...so loudly that I can only truly call it a "guffaw", and as a result, everyone within earshot of my office is convinced I'm off my meds.
  • by mevets (322601) on Friday March 27, @04:29PM (#27362959)

    Look at how mired in poorly functioning, slow, useless software the entire IT world is. These guys could bring about the end of crime....

    • I googled for the ecrime howto but couldn't find it. Link please.

      Try reading this zine [phrack.com] and this zine, too [2600.com]. This is also recommended [darkreading.com]. Try here, too [darknet.org.uk]. Start searching forums, IRC, etc. Subscribe to all the major vulnerability sites, too. Learn to code, if you don't already know how. Get skills in C, assembler, Java, SQL, Visual Basic, Python, PHP, Perl, Unix, Linux, Windows, DNS, TCP/IP, routing protocols, Apache, MySQL, PostgreSQL, Oracle, etc. Understand how networks and systems work, architecturally speaking, from a high-level all the way down to the physical hardware.

      The learning curve is pretty steep for anyone who wishes to ascend beyond the level of 'l337 skr1p7 k1dd13'.

      Be aware, however, that the penalties for getting caught are very high. Think Kevin Mitnick.