August 13, 2007
Cyber Criminals in Crisis?
SC Magazine picked up some fresh propaganda from Kaspersky labs yesterday suggesting that "the anti-virus companies have the upper hand" according to Alexander Gostev, a senior virus analyst at Kaspersky Labs.
Gostev and Kaspersky posit a "crisis of ideas" in which cybercriminals have just run out of inspiration and are just turning up the volume on their back catalogs, like so many bad heavy metal bands. "Virus writers are concerned solely with earning dirty money and are incapable of coming up with new ideas, so instead they are trying to milk what they can out of old technologies"
Virus writers are concerned solely with money? I'm shocked and dismayed - I thought they were artists, suffering for their craft! While I applaud Kaspersky and the other security vendors for collectively making computers and networks safer, (See McAfee's sponsorship at right of good ol' McGruff) the idea that malware writers have run out of motivation other than money offers cold comfort at best.
Money is a terribly powerful motivator, (here's a newsflash: I write this blog becuase they pay me to do it) and I fully expect that as long as cybercrime pays, it will continue to develop. And as long as publishing antivirus software pays, Kaspersky and the others will continue to do it. Maybe we're in a dip in the curve of criminal innovation, maybe the security vendors have the bad guys on their heels at the moment, but please, don't anybody let your guard down one bit.
Posted by David Karp
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Thanks for the post. The article is both disturbing (is it really news?) as it is false (being involved in PR, I've become more cynical and better at spotting when something is real vs. a reporter who decided to cover a PR pitch).
It's silly to say that "bad guys" are unable to come up with more attacks. As long as there is new software being released, there will always be holes in the software to exploit. And, even after the exploits have been discovered and patches issued, not every user will appropriately patch their system.
I would also question whether this is really news. Attacks going up or down on a monthly basis is arguably news. Discussing the evolving methods of attack is also interesting...but to talk about hackers being in a creative crisis is like talking about street thugs being in a creative crisis because they only have guns. If a method works they'll continue to use it. If a method fails then a hacker will go on to something different.
Steve
Posted by Stephen Brown on November 08, 2007