Malware Industry Propping Up Job Market For IT Grads

Ramblings

from the where-the-money-is dept

One of the big trends in cybercrime has been the rise of hacking for profit, as opposed to mischief and notoriety. That’s why we’ve seen fewer of the big, disruptive attacks, and an increase in quiet attacks that siphon away data or money without bringing too much attention upon themselves. As part of this evolution, attackers have become really sophisticated about dividing up their roles; some write the malicious code and sell it; others host it on the botnets they’ve been harvesting, and so on. There was even a case of one hacking group coming up with their own video to advertise their services. Now, according to a study, they’ve adopted yet another characteristic of traditional business college recruitment. In a bid to get the best and the brightest on their sides, criminal gangs are going after IT students, hoping that the lure of easy money will convince them to cross over to the dark side. They do this by engaging with people on IT chat rooms and message boards. If all this sounds a little familiar, it’s because it’s not too unlike the infamous “Hack Heaven” piece that disgraced journalist Stephen Glass wrote for the New Republic. In it he described a fabricated hacker convention, where top hackers were recruited by agents. Maybe if he’d just waited a few years, he could have written an honest story about this.