“Mafia-style” cybercrime organizations

[SysAdMini]

http://www.avertlabs.com/research/blog/index.php/2009/10/19/mafia-style-cybercrime-organizations/

In Las Vegas during the last McAfee Focus’09 conference, I listened to various speakers in the Threats and Trends track. They explained how cybercrime was now managed by individuals driving their groups according to highly professional business models.

One of the most interesting talks was made by my colleague, Dirk Kolberg, who presented on Innovative Marketing, a Ukrainian scareware company the Federal Trade Commission accused of spreading some massive “scareware” schemes. Alarming messages falsely claimed that scans had detected viruses, spyware, and illegal pornography on consumers’ computers. The US District Court for the District of Maryland approved the FTC’s request to call a halt to the companies’ activities and freeze the assets of those behind the scams.