Recent media reports have highlighted selected portions from McAfee?s soon-to-be released second annual study of cyber crime. While McAfee?s Virtual Criminology Report appears loaded with sensational claims about the state of cyber crime, the report does not appear to break any new ground.
The most hyped claim to emerge from McAfee?s study is that children as young as 14 have been recruited by cyber criminal gangs. According to Reuters, ?criminals are targeting universities, computer clubs and online forums to find undergraduates, according to Internet security firm McAfee? (source).
A Known Problem
While this conclusion seems to be groundbreaking, there is ample pre-existing evidence documenting the recruitment of youth and other individuals with special skills or access by organized criminal gangs. According to Jim Melnick, Director of Threat Intelligence for iDefense, ?we even have proof of actual job listings on Russian-language sites offering lucrative pay for coders who can create exploits and launch denial-of-service attacks? (source).
Western European authorities also have evidence documenting this phenomenon. Strathclyde police officials in Glasgow, Scotland believe that organized crime gangs have infiltrated approximately 10 percent of Glasgow?s call centers (source). According to Detective Inspector Derek Robertson, ?organized crime groups?are placing people within the call centers so that they can steal customers? data and carry out fraud. We also know of employees leaving the call centers and being approached and coerced, whether physically, violently or by being encouraged to make some extra money. And of course you have the disgruntled employee who may turn their hand to fraud just to benefit themselves.?
Authorities have also documented criminal recruitment of teenagers in Western Europe, the United States, and Australia as ?money mules? to transfer funds stolen from phishing victims to organized criminals operating in Russia and the former Soviet Union (source). In June 2006, police in Australia busted an organized criminal gang that recruited teenagers to launder stolen money (source). According to Detective Superintendent Colin Dyson, ?in Sydney, the gangs have been recruiting school-age kids to utilize their bank accounts to launder their money through them.?
Given this pre-existing evidence, organized crime gangs have continued to expand recruitment efforts to include the various skills required to operate an online criminal syndicate.
