author: programming

Latest Security News | SecurityExtra.com

Law enforcement agencies winning in the battle against cybercrime

Posted: 11 Jul 2011 12:57 PM PDT

June was a difficult time for cybercriminals as it saw some notable successes for various law enforcement agencies in the war on cybercrime, according to the latest malware report from Kaspersky Lab. In the US, the activities of two international cybercrime groups that made money from fake antivirus programs were terminated. According to preliminary estimates, the damage caused by the groups amounted to $74 million. In addition to US agencies, the operation to shut down these groups involved law enforcement agencies from another 11 countries. About 600 people suspected of implementing fraudulent online schemes were arrested in several Southeast Asian countries. In June, cybercriminals used Amazon's cloud to host and distribute malware that targeted Brazilian users and was designed to steal data from customers of nine Brazilian banks. To improve its chances of success, the malware blocked the normal operation of AV programs and special plug-ins that are supposed to make online banking secure. The malware also stole digital certificates and Microsoft Live Messenger credentials. Russian scammers tried their luck at making money for nothing in June using the BitCoins virtual money system. With the help of new malicious programs they launched a legitimate BitCoins file on the victim computer [...]