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Submitted by: Bill Hickey
NCVA List Master

NRT-0415 International Cybercrime Groups Recruiting for Language Skills:

Hacker help-wanted ads appearing on underground internet channels are seeking programmers with foreign-language skills to help launch country-specific attacks, according to research by McAfee appearing in an online news report. Hackers want to craft compelling and grammatically correct web pages and spam emails, which are crucial in fooling people into downloading viruses or revealing personal information like credit card numbers, according to the report. The recruitment pitches often take two forms: hackers looking to employ virus-writers to design spam and web sites in local languages, and those hackers looking to trade malicious programs in different languages, said David Marcus of McAfee. By localizing their attacks, hackers can better target software and sites popular in specific countries, such as peer-to-peer network applications in Japan, online gaming sites in China, and banks in Brazil. They can also limit their attacks to countries where law enforcement is more likely to be lax. The report found that just 67% of spam is now written in English, a sign that broadband penetration in emerging markets has made attacks in non-English languages increasingly lucrative. "They're approaching malware as a business and are looking to build their businesses globally," said Marcus.

(apnews.myway.com 21FEB08)

Last Modified: Friday, 28-Mar-2008 14:48:10 EDT