How chats in underground Internet world evolve into deadly attacks

What begin as conversations today among cyber criminals in the underground Internet chat forums will evolve into deadly cyber threats over the next few weeks or months. They discuss the newer opportunities and methods to make a quick buck. Internet security experts who peek into such conversations have found a pattern.

Hacker forums provide an elusive space for cyber criminals to discuss cyber crime-related topics with their peers and pursue lucrative opportunities. “The cyber threats we face today once began as conversations on hidden forums and grew into products and services available on underground markets,” John Fokker, Head of Cyber Criminal Investigations at McAfee, said.

Security threats

A quarterly assessment of Internet security solutions company McAfee throws light on the ways of the cyber criminals. The report found that the number of new cyber security threats is going up at an unbelievable speed. As many as 480 new threats hit the cyber space every minute in the quarter ending December 31, it said.

The hackers have found a new target in the form of Internet of Things and started hitting the IoT devices with malware.

Malwares

Cybercriminals have taken notice of the growing volume and lax security of many IoT devices and have begun to focus on them, harnessing thousands of devices to create a mining super-computer. New malware targeting IoT devices grew 72 per cent, with total malware growing two times in the last four quarters. New coin mining malware grew nearly 55 per cent, with total malware growing 44 times in the last four quarters.

“Cybercriminals are eager to weaponise vulnerabilities both new and old, and the number of services now available on underground markets has dramatically increased their effectiveness,” Christiaan Beek, a scientist with Internet security solutions company McAfee.

In an effort to evade law enforcement and build trust directly with customers, some entrepreneurial cyber criminals have shifted away from using larger markets to sell their goods and have begun creating their own specialised shops.Attractive avenues

McAfee says user credentials remain a popular topic for discussions among the cyber criminals. Hacked email accounts are of particular interest to them as they are used to restore login credentials for a host of online services.

They shifted their focus from point-of-sale systems to payment platforms on large e-commerce sites. They skimmed thousands of credit card details directly from some websites.

McAfee Labs counted 215 publicly disclosed security incidents, a decrease of 12 per cent from the incidents in the second quarter. About 44 per cent of all publicly disclosed security incidents took place in the Americas, followed by 17 per cent in Europe and 13 per cent in the Asia-Pacific region.

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