[ISN] How Cybercriminals Choose Their Targets And Tactics

From: InfoSec News <alerts_at_private>
Date: Tue, 15 Jan 2013 00:23:02 -0600 (CST)
http://www.darkreading.com/advanced-threats/167901091/security/vulnerabilities/240146180/how-cybercriminals-choose-their-targets-and-tactics.html

By Randy George
Contributing Writer
Dark Reading
Jan 13, 2013

[Excerpted from "How Cybercriminals Choose Their Targets and Tactics," a 
new, free report posted this week on Dark Reading's Advanced Threats 
Tech Center.]

When police officers go undercover, they must successfully blend into an 
environment that few of us would ever willingly choose to live in. Good 
undercover officers know the tactics of traditional criminals because 
they live in the criminals' world. They study the criminals' tactics, 
tools and psyches, and can thus anticipate certain behaviors because 
they understand the end goals.

In some respects, staying a step ahead of cybercriminals is much more 
difficult than staying ahead of your average street criminal. You won't 
catch black-hat hackers with traditional surveillance, because they can 
inflict as much damage in their pajamas as they could if they got 
dressed and robbed a bank.

Cybercriminals often fit no specific profile. They can effectively hide 
their tracks through proxies and spoofing. They change their tactics 
often, and they are adept at hiding tools and other malicious code 
through obfuscation. Good cybercriminals understand the digital trails 
they leave, and how easy or hard it is for big-business security tools 
to detect those activities.

And unlike many security pros, good cybercriminals can code. Talented 
black hats enjoy decompiling a piece of commercial software for fun,or 
coding a new botnet with a feature set that is a security admin's worst 
nightmare.

[...]


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Received on Mon Jan 14 2013 - 22:23:02 PST

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