Cybercrooks come up with new ideas
Posted On Wednesday, January 30, 2008 at at 1/30/2008 02:47:00 AM by nullCYBER-CRIMINALS are apparently coming up with more crafty and sophisticated ways to hack data now that owners are installing firewalls and virus checkers.
According to USA Today, the latest technique is to attack home network routers instead of PC hard-drives. Another uses hacked PCs to click on Internet adverts to generate ad payments.
Mary Landesman, senior researcher at security firm ScanSafe said that attacks were becoming more frequent and continue to grow increasingly more sophisticated in 2008.
The router hack seems to be the brain child of one particular gang which has successfully used it to get money out of a Mexican bank.
This involves sending out tainted e-mail greeting card that, when opened, give the intruders control of the recipient's router.
It only worked on one router model, but fortunately for the crooks it just happened to be one run by the bank.
A Symantec spokesman said that the attack was so successful it was almost certain to be copied by others who would use other router brands.