COUNTDOWN

Cybercriminals move focus to SA and 2010

July 26 2007 at 07:26AM

By Louise Flanagan

The Russians are coming to the 2010 World Cup - but not all of them have good intentions.

International cybercriminals are using 2010 to target South Africa, forensic investigators warned on Wednesday.

"They've moved from Germany now for the 2010 soccer," said Computer Security and Forensic Solutions MD Krappie Engelbrecht. "They must make provision now, as they are building new stadiums."

He said Russian criminals in particular were gearing up for this.

Engelbrecht was attending a conference on corporate fraud and forensic investigations in Fourways, north of Johannesburg.

He said cybercriminals were into "everything" and businesses and individuals should be on the alert.
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Engelbrecht's colleague, IT security expert Craig Retief, outlined a long list of cyber attacks, ranging from credit card fraud and phishing for banking information to cyberpunks, botmasters and cyberkamikazes.

The attacks target individuals, businesses and the government.

Retief described how one government department, which he declined to name, had its servers hijacked by criminals who ran a porn website off the government's equipment.

The department kept running out of server space due to the illicit website, so kept adding more hard drives until investigators were brought in.

"We traced it back to a Russian entity that had broken into that server," said Retief.

Most attacks were close to home: "Fifty to 60 percent of incidents are people who work for you - disgruntled employees," said Retief.

New types of cybercrime are emerging all the time, targeting business networks, individual bank accounts, home computers and cellphones.

"Criminals have discovered that communication mediums which we use daily provide new opportunities and multiple benefits for illicit business," Retief added.

Kamikaze attacks are carried out by criminals who don't bother to cover their tracks but just destroy their target.

Botmasters set up networks of "zombie computers", catching computers when the user lands on an infected website.

"A botmaster is a criminal who wants to use your computer as a resource in some way," said Retief, explaining that such a person could set up a website offering nonexistent items for sale.

"The botmaster gets his army of 10 000 zombies to come to this site and buy things with stolen credit cards."

Cybercriminals will sell any online information they can get - from viruses and Trojans that damage networks to identity details and driving licences.

Retief showed how he could download the information from a cellphone using a computer and found about a third of workshop participants' cellphones were open to attack because their Bluetooth access was not blocked.

• This article was originally published on page 11 of The Star on July 25, 2007

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