Cyber attacks considered dangerous, difficult to stop

Carol Forsloff - An email arrived with
information about a pharmacy in Canada, said to be from a friend.  In checking with the friend it was discovered her email had been hacked. But cyber attacks are causing problems that are widespread and could be dangerous.

 It's a common practice, but one that sleuths are busting.  Cyber security detectives work on the problem but so do some of the private security firms, as they track down the perpetrators of what is often very destructive behavior.

If you lose your email, you can lose your contacts and have to reestablish them.  It's much harder to regain your economic security, when your passwords and special sites, or financial accounts are hacked.  And that too is happening in big numbers, enough to worry security experts.  But let's return to those private security firms and how they are operating to help track down those guilty of hacking and worse.

Private security firms are getting into the act of taking down cyber criminals, who not only hack private email but major business and government systems.  It is a widespread practice, so widespread that someone in Eastern Europe may hack into your neighbor's computer and steal financial information.  That's bad, of course; it is worse when it happens to you.

In government and business, cybercriminals can cause a lot of damage.  They could conceivably shut down the nation's banking system, interrupt military communications or confuse operations in transportation or other industries.

This major crime is so major that private security firms are getting involved because it is so complex and extensive, it can be quite a business.

A few years ago international news related the story of Slovenian authorities, working with the FBI  A man was arrested and accused of creating malicious software and selling it to other cybercriminals.  So people make money at all ends of this game.

In this case the alleged mastermind was a 23 year-old man known only by his internet name of 'Iserdo.'

Butterfly botnet kit has been a malicious software behind Mariposa and many other stealing botnets infecting millions of computers worldwide.
Botnet invasions have become so invasive they have infected banks,
government agencies and businesses in over 200 countries.

There are now others, many others, since the news about 'Iserdo's" arrest.

A purveyor of software that can hack sites allows people with limited computer skills to perpetrate cybercrime on a massive scale.  Something that has been called  The Butterfly kit sold online for between euro 500 and euro 1500 ($650 - $2,000 that was able to create major trouble for those who wanted massive mischief.

 Already the list of victims is long, and getting longer, including hundreds of financial institutions and government departments as well as millions of corporations and individuals around the world.  Frequently it is front page news.

The Mariposa botnet program was sold to hundreds of other criminals, "making it one of the most notorious in the world," said FBI Director Robert S. Mueller, III in 2010.  "These cyber intrusions, thefts, and frauds undermine the integrity of the Internet and the businesses that rely on it; they also threaten the
privacy and pocketbooks of all who use the Internet."

 Typically,the operators of the botnets are caught, but it's extremely rare to have caught the author of the build kit behind the botnet," said Christopher Davis, CEO of Defense Intelligence.

Governments are hoping these arrests will serve as both a precedent and a warning.  Davis adds, "We need to go after all of them - the people who write the code, the people who sell it, the people who distribute it, even the money mules they use to convert stolen credit cards and banking credentials into cash."

Jeffrey Troy,who was Deputy Assistant Director for the FBI's cyber division at the time the botnet creator was caught said, "As opposed to arresting the guy who broke into your home, we've arrested the guy that gave him the crowbar, the map, and the best houses in the neighborhood. And that is a huge break in the investigation of cyber crimes."

Cyber criminals are caught by complicated systems moving together around the world using a variety of intelligence operations and private security.
"Tens of millions of unique IP addresses are contacting us instead of
the bad guys," says Matt Thompson, lead researcher for Defence Intelligence, a private security firm in 2010. "We're proud of that," he adds.

There are now sites that offer instruction on how to avoid hacking and how to outwit the software programs or spot those using them or simply to know what to do in this world where danger lurks right the computer in front of you.  A site that refers to itself as "ethical hacking" offers the disclaimer that in no way is it teaching people how to hack nor does it espouse programs or techniques that are used to steal information.  In fact, it declares it is involved in computer security.

Still the problem of cyber security is so overwhelming, that it will take far more international cooperation and security officials to interrupt what experts say may be an inevitable, major cyber attack that could literally close the power grids of much of the developed world.