US under seige from cyber criminals

 

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By Reuters

Posted on 16 Oct 2008 at 16:10

The head of the FBI's cyber division claims twenty four countries have taken an "aggressive interest" in penetrating the networks of US companies and government agencies.

FBI assistant director Shawn Henry declined to specify countries, but US intelligence agencies have previously voiced concern over Russia and China's ability to electronically spy and disrupt the country's computer networks.

Henry says federal agents are stepping up efforts to fight computer crime, together with their international counterparts as the threat level rises.

Henry was particularly concerned about the growing use of botnets - strings of thousands of infected computers - which unwittingly spread malicious software. Henry claims botnets are increasingly being used to target companies and shut down networks.

Another method, "Spearfishing," when hackers get a copy of a company's email list and then send out official-looking requests for employee personal information, has also been a growing problem, he says.

Henry also admitted that computer crime had invaded Wall Street, with investment companies losing tens of millions of dollars through "pump and dump" schemes in which criminals penetrate multiple client accounts and used them to run up the price of low-liquidity stocks and dump them from their own accounts.