Downturn may turn techies to crime, say reports
Summary
Topics
The credit crunch will drive some IT workers to use their skills to steal credit-card data using phishing attacks, and abuse their privileged corporate computer access to sell off valuable financial and intellectual information, forensic experts have warned.
Both PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) and security vendor Finjan are forecasting that the recession will fuel a significant rise in insider fraud and cybercrime in 2009.
A PwC forensic expert claimed the financial-services sector is already investigating a rising number of staff frauds, while Finjan cited evidence of a trend in 2008 for unemployed IT staff in Eastern Europe and Asia to use crimeware toolkits to launch phishing attacks and seed malware to steal financial details.
Neil Ysart, senior manager of forensic services at PwC, said: "People from the financial sector are all saying the same thing: there is a rise in internal investigations as everyone has seen a rise in suspected fraudulent activity."
"There are certain types of fraud where an understanding of technology would make it easier to circumvent controls and IT staff have the knowledge to do that — for example, the theft of data at telcos," Ysart said.
"There was a range of very well-documented frauds that took place during the recession in the early 1990s and it does not take a great deal of insight to realize we will see an increase at a time like this," he said.
Forensic specialists at PwC are advising businesses to mount extra checks on areas where staff will be most tempted to defraud the company, such as expenses, access to sensitive customer data or massaging performance figures to win a bonus. Of the use of crimeware, Finjan's report states: "Having the large number of layoffs of IT professionals all around the world, especially in the USA, we expect a rising number of people willing to 'give it a try' and to get stolen credit-card numbers, online-banking accounts and corporate data that they can use to generate income."
A recent report by security vendor McAfee also found there is a risk that cybercrime may further slow the speed of UK economic recovery, a sentiment echoed by the joint architect of the UK's Police Central e-Crime Unit, Charlie McMurdie.
Talkback Most Recent of 15 Talkback(s)
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Investment opportunity?
Time to invest in prison construction futures.
wkulecz12th Dec 2008 -
T1Oracle12th Dec 2008 -
New headline needed...
"Downturn may turn politicians into even worse thugs than usual."
Why the attempt to shift attention from the greatest financial crimes our country has ever seen: the systematic pillaging of taxpayers by our government!?!
Most tech crime is done from the inside...and that presumes those still employed would have reason to do so...if anything, techies are on their best behavior right now, so as not to be put on the soon-to-be-unemployed roster.
Please cover something real and relevant -- actual technology.
techboy_z12th Dec 2008 -
No rhyme or reason.....
You can be one of the best in your field. You can show
your employer time and again why you have value like for
instance coming in while on vacation to take care of
something that wasn't even your problem. Still despite
efforts and skills like those given you can loose your job in
the next merger/layoff. Why? Because the company you
merge with might be the leader and their people get
priority. All your efforts mean little to the internal politics.
Frankly your best effort means nothing that it use too. It
does mean something but not nearly as much as you'd like
to think or it should. There is nothing the average worker
can count on these days except the shaft....
Pagan jim
James Quinn15th Dec 2008 -
Frivolous fear mongering
This is a good example of a trumped-up prediction by security experts and consultants whose aim is to create the illusion of danger in an attempt to increase their own business. The story may have well claimed that laid-off teachers or autoworkers may turn to crime (except that's not as scary to corporate America). Ninety-five percent of the time the people who commit crimes are still on the inside. How many investment and mortgage bank scandals do we need to see to understand that the unemployed are nowhere near our biggest concern?
tsavola12th Dec 2008 -
steve@...12th Dec 2008 -
But we are new to it Peter.
I cannot believe what a bunch of losers we are. We're looking up 'money laundering' in the dictionary!
mikefarinha12th Dec 2008 -
Sure.
I would agree with you totally. I suspect that these research and security firms had better watch the authors of these reports if they lay them off or fire them.
Seems to me, they are predicting more of what THEY would do under certain circumstances.
Sure I could agree that IT related persons may commit crimes in increasing numbers over the next year. Is that a SIGNIFICANT number considering this?
What a BS report!
profsmichael@...12th Dec 2008 -
Idea!
"..selling corporate data and using crimeware"
It is not a bad idea.
I will call it as Plan-B
magallanes15th Dec 2008 -
RE: Downturn may turn techies to crime, say reports
And why not? We sell out our jobs to nations that use computers with pirated software. Walking the straight and narrow has only lead many of us to failure.
VoiceOfLogic17th Dec 2008 -
Why worry about the peons stealing millions ...
... when the big dogs have been and are continuing to steal billions.
While smiling and telling you everything is OK.
With SEC approval.
YES! Start worrying about little guys!
(because if enough 1000s of them go rogue, collectively they might start catching up with one of the real crooks)
EMonkIA18th Dec 2008 -
RE: Downturn may turn techies to crime, say reports
Invest in security software developing companies.
mohan.late@...19th Dec 2008 -
RE: Downturn may turn techies to crime, say reports
First of all a similar crash in the job market for IT professionals occurred at the end of 1999/beginning of 2000 (due to the fearmongering about Y2K). At that time, IT professionals (as I once was) filed for record numbers of bankrupcies and divorces, and were either forced to sell there homes or were foreclosed. To my knowledge, there was no great crime wave of "techie" crimes then.
However, we are an older generation that was taught different morals than today's generation. To us, stealing isn't an option, but from what I have seen in today's younger people that isn't necessarily so. Today's younger generation is an "entitlement" generation. What I mean is that they expect to be paid for doing nothing on their jobs (I see this all the time in my current job), they expect the government to provide food/ shelter/daycare, etc. Thus, it isn't much of a stretch in that "moral" fabric to feel entitled to commit crimes, especially if they feel that the crime will only affect the "evil rich". A prime example of this twisted logic was posted by EMonkIA. You haven't a clue do you EMonkIA? Those "crooked rich" are the ones that provide the jobs for us "little guys". Another fine example of government education at its finest.
mred3921st Dec 2008 -
Respectfully disagree
After $250 billion has been given to the banking industry because of their mismanagement, while normal people are still losing their homes after all of the layoffs and ARM mortgages (maybe from their own mismanagement) who didn't get a bailout, I don't think the "Evil Rich", is a fabrication of a deluded, intitlement oriented generation. If there is a generation that deserves such critizism, it's the generation at the helm that cares so little for the people for which they are responsible. The relationship between the business owners and labor is symbiotic. They don't just give us jobs and that's it. We trade our time for money and give them the products that they make their fortunes from. Without us, they don't get to be rich.
bmonster6th Jan 2009 -
Apolitical->Amoral
not surprising. we all know the Apolitical IT class is Amoral from its inception.
me108422nd Dec 2008
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