Cyber thieves thriving

BEWARE : Cyber thieves thriving

By George Brennan

November 28, 2008

http://www.capecodonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20081128/NEWS/811280331

SANDWICH — The theft of $34,000 from a town bank account is part of growing underground economy centered on cyber crime, a top law enforcement official says.

"It's massive, it's growing and it's transnational," said Scott O'Neal, chief of the FBI's Washington-based computer intrusion section. "There are cyber criminals and cyber victims in many different countries."

Sandwich police say hackers stole the password and security information for a town bank account earlier this month and made four illegal wire transfers. The town treasurer noticed the bogus transactions while attempting to pay the town's weekly bills.

Bank officials told the town the wire transfers were made using Treasurer Craig Mayen's name and password, police said. Investigators believe the hackers breached the town computers using a virus that logged Mayen's key strokes.

Sandwich police Detective Albert Robichaud was able to trace the transfers to banks in Florida and Georgia in the United States, Police Chief Michael Miller said Tuesday. At least one of those transactions was traced to St. Petersburg, Russia, an indication to law enforcement that organized crime may be involved.

O'Neal said he couldn't comment on the specific case, but he said cyber crime is booming in places like Eastern Europe and Russia where there are people with technological skills and few job opportunities.

"That's the combination that adds up to trouble," he said. "We do see the threat coming from all parts of the globe."

There are elaborate networks that include people who don't even know each other working in different countries, O'Neal said. "It can have a lot of moving pieces," he said. "It insulates the mastermind."

In the Sandwich case, a Florida man was discovered trying to withdraw cash from one of the accounts where the Sandwich cash was deposited. He was interviewed by police who found he answered an advertisement to open bank accounts for a fee and move money around, someone the FBI refers to as a mule. The Florida man has not been charged.

Though O'Neal said it's difficult to quantify the magnitude of the cyber crime problem beyond calling it "massive," Symantec, a software company that specializes in computer security, released a report this week that indicates a thriving underground economy.

Mark Fossi, manager of development for Symantec and the executive editor of the report, said cyber thieves are finding new ways to thwart security to steal credit card and bank account information.

Knowing that more people are aware that they shouldn't open attached files, cyber criminals try to lure victims to Web sites through links embedded in e-mails, he said.

"If a town can be breached like this, as an individual you've got to keep that in mind," Fossi said. "You might think, it's a small town, they're not going to come after us, they're interested in a big city, but there's nothing too small for them. If they can get some profit out of it, they will."

Symantec's year-long study found that the cumulative value of the stolen information, the majority of which are credit cards and bank accounts, was more than $276 million. And the company says that is only a fraction of the underground economy.

If all of the stolen credit cards and bank accounts were liquidated, the number would exceed $7 billion, Fossi said.

Keeping anti-virus software and firewalls up to date and being vigilant is the only way to fight cyber attacks, Fossi and O'Neal said.