Cloud-computing zombies for $299 per month
Summary
Topics
'Fraud as a service' is opening up computer crime to people with no technical expertise, warned Uri Rivner, head of new technology at security company RSA.
Speaking at the RSA Conference Europe 2008 in London, Rivner laid the pricing bare, revealing how fraudsters offer botnet networks as a subscription service, with patching and upgrades thrown in.
These networks could be tailored to infect other users' computers with malware, or to launch massive distributed denial-of-service attacks designed to take down computer systems.
Rivner said: "This is the danger with making this technology open to the mass market. Anybody can become a high-end online fraudster."
Malware is also being sold for both the high-end and budget markets, from the $1,000 Zeus Trojan, a sophisticated Trojan that harvests data and entrenches itself in the system, down to $350 for the Limbo Trojan.
Rivner said the fraudsters usually split their roles between the "harvester", the hacker who writes and deploys the malware to steal the details, and a "cash-out" criminal who will handle the money.
Cash-out fraudsters use "money mules", who are often unwittingly recruited as "finance officers" working from home, to have the dirty money laundered through their account.
Talkback Most Recent of 5 Talkback(s)
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One more reason...
..."cloud computing" is a REALLY bad idea.
IT_Guy_z3rd Nov 2008 -
huh?
How is cloud computing a really bad idea? If anything, this just helps prove the opposite. It just so happens these particular cloud computing systems are using stolen computers to do illegal and immoral things without the owner's knowledge.
Knives are dangerous for psychopaths and idiots but for most people they are a valuable tool.
cabdriverjim9th Nov 2008 -
RE: Cloud-computing zombies for $299 per month
Is it a surprise that Microsoft is the sponsor of this
scare tactic? If this service really does exist, it
has nothing to do with the legitimate cloud computing
providers.
The only reason for an ITGuy to not recommend cloud
computing - they know it's the end of the line for
them because they're skills are outdated and unneeded.
smarter_than_you7th Nov 2008 -
Or
Perhaps issues of privacy, data security and protection etc.
Cloud computing is not some ubiquitous solution that can be applied in all cases. It'll suit some companies but not others.
For instance, I think it would be illegal for a European company to use a cloud provider to store any kind of personal data unless they could be assured of non-transference of that data to any mirror or other system outside the EC. Historic differences in pricing structure between US & the rest of the world might well kill the idea of anyhow, or make it an American thing
alec.wood@...14th Nov 2008 -
RE: Cloud-computing zombies for $299 per month
How about the luddites and gun-nuts stop commenting on
technical news? I was hoping for some interesting
comments, but, sadly, disappointed.
butzi6412th Nov 2008
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