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

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."

Heh

[Niris]

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.

Criminal activities

[Narpak]

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.

Erm? How is this bad?

[Jonas Buyl]

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.

Re:Poor economy affecting IT less

[jellomizer]

I think most of this is from self proclaimed IT Pros, vs. Real ones.

Re:Heh

[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.

Re:Heh

[ssintercept]

a very duh thing indeed. from the linked article: "In poor economy, more IT pros could turn to e-crime" (emphasis mine).

you could say that about anybody or any profession during hard times.