Fergie's Tech Blog

Economic Crisis May Be Boon For Cybercriminals

Kelly Jackson Higgins writes on Dark Reading:

One industry sector is actually happy about the current state of the global economy: cybercriminals.

"One thing we've seen is financially based cybercrime is recession-proof," says Darren Mott, supervisory special agent for the FBI's Cyber Division. "With [this] changing economy, the only thing that changes is the way they go about obtaining their information."

Organized cybercrime has already begun capitalizing on the global financial crisis, cybercrime experts say, with targeted phishing attacks on customers whose banks have folded, and attacks that scam consumers who may be shopping less online, but are now spending more time at home. With fewer business and consumer targets available, the bad guys are redirecting their efforts to adapt to the market. For example, credit cards are out; debit cards are in.

posted by Fergie @ 10/28/2008 03:42:00 PM