The Dark Economy

Interesting blog post at the British Computer Society's blog about the Dark Economy, which states that there are 17,000 unique signatures of new threats per day; this threat has been growing massively since 2006 with 9 out of 10 threats being from Trojans which download from 'innocent links'.

The blog links to a BBC Radio 4 show which aired on May 3rd called "Hacked to pieces".  The show is no longer available to be heard, but was interesting.

For example, the reporter "finds that the security details of ordinary members of the public –
their bank details, passwords, and secret security questions are being
openly traded in cybercrime forums. He hands over his own laptop
computer to an 'ethical hacker' and finds that it takes two minutes for
its password to be cracked. Within a few more minutes, the hacker has
installed a key-logging Trojan that secretly passes all his computer
activity – passwords, emails and all – back to the hacker's own
computer."

We still have a clear and present danger.

Don't forget.