Stolen Credit Card Forums ~~Financial Matters of Life ~~
Security is for SMEs too
I came across an interesting Q & A with an FBI agent who played a key role in busting team transnational cyber crime. Agent J. Mularski Keith spent two years infiltrating an underground Internet forum to facilitate the purchase and sale of stolen data from credit cards for identity fraud, which led to 60 arrests worldwide.
While the article was interesting enough purely in terms of how research was conducted, I think the interview really crystallized the idea that SMEs must be more proactive than ever in terms of how to address security IT.
A couple of thoughts struck me while reading the article.
Exploits and botnets are more sophisticated than ever
Mularski watched security threats are more sophisticated than ever. One example: The majority of botnets in the past were coordinated from IRC channels, which is considered quite simple, if not downright primitive. I think any manager would be able smart enough to find and remove any infection such machines in the network relatively quickly.
Unfortunately, the situation has changed dramatically. For the moment, as the Storm Worm botnets are much more sophisticated and operate through peer-to-peer. Throw in some protocol obfuscation or encryption of data and is easy to see why it is extremely difficult to track and locate the terminals infected, much less to identify and eliminate the command and control servers.
All about the money
Remember that Web attacks degradation of yesteryear? Well, more than the stereotypical "18-year-old face grains child in her bedroom commit cyber crime these days, these attacks have become the domain of organized crime groups. And instead of demonstrations under hacking skills, motivation main drive of these criminal groups is profit.
When it comes to stealing credit card numbers of its customers or make a copy its database of human resources, small business and medium enterprises is the game just like any other. In fact, I think it would arguably be easier to infiltrate in an SME a company with dedicated security staff and independent safety audits.
Conclusion
SMEs that stop thinking that all the security implies the presence of antivirus and firewall application of the company. Indeed, these are simply tools to reduce the likelihood of security incidents, and not the solutions themselves.
And instead of relegating the idea of implementing information security as another unnecessary work, it's time for small and medium enterprises to wake up and think too much.
About the Author
Read Paul Mah’s blog covering technology for SMBs for IT Business Edge. Follow Paul on Twitter – @paulmah
Card Scams, Frauds & 24 7 Protests for Months – All For the Same Cause – Part 4
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