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."
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.
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.
Maybe, but incident after incident links IT insiders to malicious activity on the systems they administer.
I would also like to think that IT people are both more honest and less likely to be laid off, but people are people and there are quite a few employers out there who don't really appreciate how valuable their IT people are.
I think many who get laid off will probably be tempted if they don't have luck finding new positions.
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.
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.
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
Dear Sir ,
I am Plmber, joe, the Represenative in charge of Auditing and Accounting section of AIG of USA with due respect and regards. I have decided to contact you on a business transaction that will be very beneficial to both of us at the end of the transaction.
During our investigation and auditing in this bank, my department came across a very huge sum of money belonging to Bernie MAdoff who died on March 12 in a hunting accident and the fund has been dormant in his/her account with this bank without any claim of the fund in our custody either from his family or relation.
Although personally, I kept this information secret within myself to enable the whole transactions and idea be splendid and successful during the time of execution.
The said amount was USD$ 5000000,Five Million. I am overjoyed to say that with the introduction of internet and Website, I was opportune and lucky to have come across your Contact through this satellite media. As it may Interest you to know, Meanwhile all the arrangement to put claim over this asset as the bonafide next of kin to the deceased, get the required approval and transfer this money to a foreign account has been put in place.
Directives and needed information will be forwarded to you as soon as you indicate your interest and willingness to helpfully assist us and also benefit your self through this amazing business opportunity.
In fact I could have done this deal alone but because Of my position in this country as a civil servant, we are not allowed to claim a foreign account, this is the actual reason why it will require a intermedary Or consultant who will forward claims as the next of kin. With affidavit of trust to this bank and also Present a foreign account where he will need the money to be retransfer into. I will not fail to assure you that this transaction is 100% cromulent.
On smooth conclusion of this transaction, you will be entitled to 14% of the total Sum as gratification, while 3% will be set aside upon conclusion, to take care of expenses that may arise during the time Of transfer both local and international like shipping, bribes, e.t.c, while 78% will be for me and my partner.
Please, you have been advised to keep very confidential as I am still in service and intend to retire from service after I conclude this stunning deal with you. I will be watch the whole situation here in this bank until you confirm the money in your account and ask us to come down to your country for subsequent sharing of the fund according to percentages indicated and to discuss incredible investment opportunities, either in your country or any country you helpfully advise us to invest in.
All other necessary information will be sent to you When I hear from you. I suggest you get back to me on my private e-mail address: princeamir@worldzia.ua as Soon as possible stating your wish in this deal.
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.
LOL, I'm not exactly sure what you mean be self-proclaimed and real pros. But if you mean school educated -vs- experience driven. Ill put my money on experience driven any day of the week.
A Real pro, is someone who is dedicated to providing an excellent service and making sure he has the expertise to back it up when the time comes. Everything is is just, well academic.
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.
Perhaps the phenomenon of outsourcing has already gradually done the damage to this industry that a poor economy would have done more suddenly. That's just an idea; I don't really have the economic understanding to know how to determine whether there is any truth to that, but that was my first impression when I saw your post. Maybe someone who does understand economics can tell me if there is any validity to it.
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
I wonder whether anyone trying to earn anything trough black hattery will find it easy in those tough times. I'm sure not all parts of the world have been hit equally and so becomming an international criminal could become even more of a necessity for the so inclined. Maybe they should try getting some of that money back from Nigeria.
I also have doubts that SPAM is going be on the upturn and I guess the article already makes clear that people who were smart enough to not make the obvious financial mistakes
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.
Ok, so they ask if attacks are increasing, and 45% say they are, presumably meaning 55% said no. That's an increase? That sounds like a decrease.
51% say the technical sophistication is increasing? Well, as time goes on, technology gets more sophisticated. It seems like attacks would follow that trend too.
This doesn't sound like a real story, it sounds like someone coming up with an idea and trying to make the statistics sound right. Didn't Mark Twain say something about lies, d*mn lies and statistics?
So 45 percent of respondents said that they are seeing an increasing number of attacks? HOW MUCH are they increasing? If 45% of respondents said that attacks are up 0.01%, I don't really care. Way to not give me enough information to form an opinion, article...
"There's only four things we do better than anyone else: music, movies, microcode, and high speed pizza delivery."
The former hedge-fund managers are hogging all the pizza delivery jobs, guess that means the coders are going to have to stick with crimes you can prepend with "cyber."
I wish/. would go back to using a serif font. Nobody told CmdrTaco or Jimbo Wales at Wikipedia that sans-serif fonts are meant for headlines and other large text.
Huh. I didn't even know most you were looking at a sans-serif font. I only see Times New Roman for these posts (Arial and New Courier are also used, but not for general purposes).
I didn't have to tell Firefox to force anything; your comment made me look at my font settings for the first time since moving up to Firefox 3. Apparently, I have to specifically allow pages to use their fonts rather than mine.
Already done that; Slashdot's CSS overrides it. Yeah, you can set your browser to always enforce its own font settings, but then you ruin other sites that get it right.
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.
Kevin Mitnick? So if I get caught I will be facing a sweet corporate job and get to author a few books on security? How can I get caught today?
I did get to meet Kevin at a conference a few years back. It was disappointing. It was like meeting a radio DJ - he looked/seemed nothing at all like I had imagined him in my mind.
Heh (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Heh (Score:5, Funny)
They're just trying to write their own bonus packages, much like the execs did.
Parent
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
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:2)
Umm. My spell checker takes the most often used words into account.
Re: (Score:2, Funny)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
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.
Re: (Score:2)
I would also like to think that IT people are both more honest and less likely to be laid off, but people are people and there are quite a few employers out there who don't really appreciate how valuable their IT people are.
I think many who get laid off will probably be tempted if they don't have luck finding new positions.
Re: (Score:2)
Shut up and give me your wallet.
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
you could say that about anybody or any profession during hard times.
Apparently, IT Pros are Pikers... (Score:5, Funny)
Re: (Score:2)
I also humbly, selflessly, and with a strong sense of duty...
GTG LOL
Criminal activities (Score:4, Insightful)
Oblig. Office Space reference (Score:3, Funny)
"You have two options: unemployment or early retirement."
Re: (Score:2, Funny)
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Five words: you must be new here
Re: (Score:2, Interesting)
Erm? How is this bad? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re: (Score:2)
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:Erm? How is this bad? (Score:5, Funny)
This is the epitome of Sloshdat reporting..
Sloshdat: Drinks for nerds. Drinks that matter.
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Thats weird.. I just got this in my email.. (Score:5, Funny)
Mr. Joe Plomber
Representative, Accounting Department.
AIG, United States
Dear Sir ,
I am Plmber, joe, the Represenative in charge of Auditing and Accounting section of AIG of USA with due respect and regards. I have decided to contact you on a business transaction that will be very beneficial to both of us at the end of the transaction.
During our investigation and auditing in this bank, my department came across a very huge sum of money belonging to Bernie MAdoff who died on March 12 in a hunting accident and the fund has been dormant in his/her account with this bank without any claim of the fund in our custody either from his family or relation.
Although personally, I kept this information secret within myself to enable the whole transactions and idea be splendid and successful during the time of execution.
The said amount was USD$ 5000000,Five Million. I am overjoyed to say that with the introduction of internet and Website, I was opportune and lucky to have come across your Contact through this satellite media. As it may Interest you to know, Meanwhile all the arrangement to put claim over this asset as the bonafide next of kin to the deceased, get the required approval and transfer this money to a foreign account has been put in place.
Directives and needed information will be forwarded to you as soon as you indicate your interest and willingness to helpfully assist us and also benefit your self through this amazing business opportunity.
In fact I could have done this deal alone but because Of my position in this country as a civil servant, we are not allowed to claim a foreign account, this is the actual reason why it will require a intermedary Or consultant who will forward claims as the next of kin. With affidavit of trust to this bank and also Present a foreign account where he will need the money to be retransfer into. I will not fail to assure you that this transaction is 100% cromulent.
On smooth conclusion of this transaction, you will be entitled to 14% of the total Sum as gratification, while 3% will be set aside upon conclusion, to take care of expenses that may arise during the time Of transfer both local and international like shipping, bribes, e.t.c, while 78% will be for me and my partner.
Please, you have been advised to keep very confidential as I am still in service and intend to retire from service after I conclude this stunning deal with you. I will be watch the whole situation here in this bank until you confirm the money in your account and ask us to come down to your country for subsequent sharing of the fund according to percentages indicated and to discuss incredible investment opportunities, either in your country or any country you helpfully advise us to invest in.
All other necessary information will be sent to you When I hear from you. I suggest you get back to me on my private e-mail address: princeamir@worldzia.ua as Soon as possible stating your wish in this deal.
Yours pleasantly,
Plobmer, Joe Agust
Poor economy affecting IT less (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Poor economy affecting IT less (Score:4, Insightful)
I think most of this is from self proclaimed IT Pros, vs. Real ones.
Parent
Re: (Score:2)
LOL, I'm not exactly sure what you mean be self-proclaimed and real pros. But if you mean school educated -vs- experience driven. Ill put my money on experience driven any day of the week.
A Real pro, is someone who is dedicated to providing an excellent service and making sure he has the expertise to back it up when the time comes. Everything is is just, well academic.
Re: (Score:2)
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.
Perhaps the phenomenon of outsourcing has already gradually done the damage to this industry that a poor economy would have done more suddenly. That's just an idea; I don't really have the economic understanding to know how to determine whether there is any truth to that, but that was my first impression when I saw your post. Maybe someone who does understand economics can tell me if there is any validity to it.
Re: (Score:2)
It is not bad enough in IT that good people are turning to lives of crime to make ends meet.
More likely they were never good people.
Oh noez! (Score:2, Funny)
Break out Paul Simon... (Score:4, Funny)
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
still kickin' it with the kids (Score:2)
I wonder if you go to the (Score:3, Interesting)
ePrison for committing an eCrime.
Re: (Score:2)
ePrison for committing an eCrime
Good one!
You'll have to admit, though, it's an improvement from the current state of affairs in which the the "cyber" prefix is applied to everything.
Maybe it's time for a Slashdot poll so we ccan decide what to call these things going forward. My vote is Crime 2.0.
Re: (Score:2, Funny)
So what would ePrison be? AOL?
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Prodigy
Economics of IT crime (Score:2)
I wonder whether anyone trying to earn anything trough black hattery will find it easy in those tough times. I'm sure not all parts of the world have been hit equally and so becomming an international criminal could become even more of a necessity for the so inclined. Maybe they should try getting some of that money back from Nigeria.
I also have doubts that SPAM is going be on the upturn and I guess the article already makes clear that people who were smart enough to not make the obvious financial mistakes
I don't know who the wiseass is (Score:5, Funny)
Duh? (Score:2)
Ok, so they ask if attacks are increasing, and 45% say they are, presumably meaning 55% said no. That's an increase? That sounds like a decrease.
51% say the technical sophistication is increasing? Well, as time goes on, technology gets more sophisticated. It seems like attacks would follow that trend too.
This doesn't sound like a real story, it sounds like someone coming up with an idea and trying to make the statistics sound right. Didn't Mark Twain say something about lies, d*mn lies and statistics?
Its a good thing. (Score:3, Funny)
Look at how mired in poorly functioning, slow, useless software the entire IT world is. These guys could bring about the end of crime....
Article fails statistics (Score:2)
the future is sooner than I thought (Score:2)
"There's only four things we do better than anyone else: music, movies, microcode, and high speed pizza delivery."
The former hedge-fund managers are hogging all the pizza delivery jobs, guess that means the coders are going to have to stick with crimes you can prepend with "cyber."
Re: (Score:2)
Re:we need an e-Serif (Score:5, Funny)
I agree...we have been sans-Serif for too long!
Parent
Re: (Score:2)
I was going to make a joke like that, but decided it would be too kerny.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Huh. I didn't even know most you were looking at a sans-serif font. I only see Times New Roman for these posts (Arial and New Courier are also used, but not for general purposes).
I didn't have to tell Firefox to force anything; your comment made me look at my font settings for the first time since moving up to Firefox 3. Apparently, I have to specifically allow pages to use their fonts rather than mine.
Re: (Score:2)
Re:screw that (Score:4, Funny)
Parent
Re:FAQ (Score:4, Informative)
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.
Parent
Re: (Score:2)
I did get to meet Kevin at a conference a few years back. It was disappointing. It was like meeting a radio DJ - he looked/seemed nothing at all like I had imagined him in my mind.