Fergie's Tech Blog

'Russian Mafia is Largest Cyber Crime Syndicate'

Via The Times of India.

While cyber criminals world-over are driven by similar knowledge of technology, the key difference lies in the "motivation behind the crime", says Chris Goggans, a celebrated American hacker and computer security expert.

Pointing out that internet security issues are as a rising concern all over the world, Goggans said that the Russian mafia account for the "most organized" cyber crimes. "The most serious cyber crimes are from Russia and China. While most of the cyber crimes from Russia are financial in nature (stealing credit card number, bank account details), crimes emanating from China are related to theft of intellectual property, government information and military data," Goggans said.

"The cyber criminals in South America, Brazil, Korea, Europe are not involved in very sinister crimes. They are mainly into hacking for proving themselves," he added.

Goggans has the unique distinction of having broken into the system of America's Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) within six hours to uncover potential security threats for the US government. "Often, making leeways in the norms set by the parent company for small comforts creates major hurdles in the security system," Goggans said.

posted by Fergie @ 12/07/2008 10:33:00 PM