The age of profit-driven Internet thieves

On February 14, security guru Eugene Kaspersky, founder of Kasperksy Lab Founder, was interviewed by New York Times reporter John Markoff at a Churchill Club event. We have a podcast of the interview, during which Kaspersky discussed the age of profit-driven Internet thieves. "We live in the world of Internet criminalization, with cartels that develop malicious code to make money," Kaspersky said. "People still don't understand that criminals are in the underground and more are coming."

Eradicating the activities of Internet thieves isn't feasible. "It's not possible to develop a flexible and secure operating system," he added. "There is no such thing as 100 percent security. If Microsoft Windows is 99 percent secure, all the hackers around the globe will use the remaining 1 percent." Kaspersky suggested that a the non-smart phone as a secure operating system. "It's not possible to install extra applications. There is no documentation for the operating system. The only way to devleop a virus or trojan is access to internal documentation from company that develops the phone," Kaspersky said. Smart phones, however, are more vulnerable. "In the future, when when smart phones are cheaper and more numerous [than non-smart phones], the situation will be worse." Markoff also probes Kaspersky on Microsoft's entry into the anti-virus/security software market.

You can download the podcast here.