How Russia Became a Malware Hornet's Nest

["Paul Ferguson" <fergdawg () netzero net>]

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Via SearchSecurity news.

[snip]

That Russia is a hornet's nest of malicious cyber activity is nothing new.
The question for some in the information security community is why people
from that part of the world are so determined to earn a living writing
attack code.

A dismal economy and lax law enforcement is fueling the problem, say two
well-known security researchers. It has helped nudge Russian computer
programmers into an underground market where easy money can be made
creating programs used to steal credit card and Social Security numbers.

"[Russian hackers] don't see themselves as doing anything criminal,"
Kaspersky Labs CEO Eugene Kaspersky said during an interview at his
company's U.S. facility in Woburn, Mass., last week.

He explained that many Russian programmers compare themselves to weapons
manufacturers -- they build the technology but are not the ones using it.
In other words, they're not responsible if someone else is pulling the
trigger. Meanwhile, Kaspersky said, the Russian economy is still shaky
enough that people are looking for ways to make a steady living, and
building malware for online gangsters is one way to do it.

[snip]

More:
http://searchsecurity.techtarget.com/originalContent/0,289142,sid14_gci1275
987,00.html

Somehow, I don't think this is the last we hear on this topic. :-)

- - ferg

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--
"Fergie", a.k.a. Paul Ferguson
 Engineering Architecture for the Internet
 fergdawg(at)netzero.net
 ferg's tech blog: http://fergdawg.blogspot.com/


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