BOSTON, March 24 — Hundreds of computer geeks, most of them students putting themselves through college, crammed into three floors of an office building in an industrial section of Ukraine’s capital Kiev, churning out code at a frenzied pace. They were creating some of the world’s most pernicious, and profitable, computer viruses.
As business boomed, the firm added a human resources department, hired an internal IT staff and built a call centre to dissuade its victims from seeking credit card refunds. Employees were treated to catered holiday parties and picnics with paintball competitions.
Top performers got bonuses as young workers turned a blind eye to the harm the software was doing. “When you are just 20, you don’t think a lot about ethics,” said Maxim, a former Innovative Marketing programmer who now works for a Kiev bank and asked that only his first name be used for this story. “I had a good salary and I know that most employees also had pretty good salaries.”
A researcher with anti-virus software maker McAfee Inc who spent months studying the company’s operations estimates that the business generated revenue of about US$180 million (RM612 million) in 2008, selling programmes in at least two dozen countries. “They turned compromised machines into cash,” said the researcher, Dirk Kollberg.
The company built its wealth pioneering scareware — programmes that pretend to scan a computer for viruses, and then tell the user that their machine is infected. The goal is to persuade the victim to voluntarily hand over their credit card information, paying US$50 to US$80 to “clean” their PC. Scareware, also known as rogueware or fake antivirus software, has become one of the fastest-growing, and most prevalent, types of internet fraud. Software maker Panda Security estimates that each month some 35 million PCs worldwide, or 3.5 per cent of all computers, are infected with these malicious programmes, putting more than US$400 million a year in the hands of cybercriminals.
Groups like Innovative Marketing build the viruses and collect the money but leave the work of distributing their merchandise to outside hackers. Once infected, the machines become virtually impossible to operate. The scareware also removes legitimate anti-virus software from vendors including Symantec Corp, McAfee and Trend Micro Inc, leaving PCs vulnerable to other attacks. When victims pay the fee, the virus appears to vanish, but in some cases the machine is then infiltrated by other malicious programmes. Hackers often sell the victim’s credit card credentials to the highest bidder.
As business boomed, the firm added a human resources department, hired an internal IT staff and built a call centre to dissuade its victims from seeking credit card refunds. Employees were treated to catered holiday parties and picnics with paintball competitions.
Top performers got bonuses as young workers turned a blind eye to the harm the software was doing. “When you are just 20, you don’t think a lot about ethics,” said Maxim, a former Innovative Marketing programmer who now works for a Kiev bank and asked that only his first name be used for this story. “I had a good salary and I know that most employees also had pretty good salaries.”
A researcher with anti-virus software maker McAfee Inc who spent months studying the company’s operations estimates that the business generated revenue of about US$180 million (RM612 million) in 2008, selling programmes in at least two dozen countries. “They turned compromised machines into cash,” said the researcher, Dirk Kollberg.
The company built its wealth pioneering scareware — programmes that pretend to scan a computer for viruses, and then tell the user that their machine is infected. The goal is to persuade the victim to voluntarily hand over their credit card information, paying US$50 to US$80 to “clean” their PC. Scareware, also known as rogueware or fake antivirus software, has become one of the fastest-growing, and most prevalent, types of internet fraud. Software maker Panda Security estimates that each month some 35 million PCs worldwide, or 3.5 per cent of all computers, are infected with these malicious programmes, putting more than US$400 million a year in the hands of cybercriminals.
Groups like Innovative Marketing build the viruses and collect the money but leave the work of distributing their merchandise to outside hackers. Once infected, the machines become virtually impossible to operate. The scareware also removes legitimate anti-virus software from vendors including Symantec Corp, McAfee and Trend Micro Inc, leaving PCs vulnerable to other attacks. When victims pay the fee, the virus appears to vanish, but in some cases the machine is then infiltrated by other malicious programmes. Hackers often sell the victim’s credit card credentials to the highest bidder.
It is really hard to believe.Mostly an anti virus producer go through our mind as a life boat. What a bad feeling when we realize exactly that boat is the cause of our sinking.The same feeling make me sad when I read this news. Now I am thinking about how can realize our enemies from our friends? But it is business and we know that many people use this kind of way to create money and antivirus manufacturers are not alone in this way.On the other hand it means some times cybercrime can occur even by legal manufacturers and under the law shed.Hope law can capture them too.
Reference:
http://the malaysianinsider.com/
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