14 DAY TRIAL // We already knew that hackers could cause serious problems. Today, I even found out that cyber-crime is a lot worse than illegal drug distribution. Symantec has a study that will back this up even more. They state that hackers are not only thrived by financial gains (fact which we already knew) but that they are now using more professional attack methods. This fact only seems natural to me - they are evolving along with the web, just like thieves are evolving with the world. You won't see a thief riding a horse and shooting his gun up in the air in modern society, and you won't see hackers use old stupid tactics. They're into social engineering now, as normal malware just doesn't cut it anymore.
"As the global cyber threat continues to grow, it has never been more important to remain vigilant and informed on the evolving threat landscape," said Dan Lohrmann, chief information security officer, State of Michigan. "Symantec's Internet Security Threat Report continues to provide us with critical information on the most current online security trends, helping us better protect our state's infrastructure and citizen information."
Hacker attacks are becoming more sophisticated and better organized. It's not just one guy now, that's trying to do some nasty stuff on the web. The latest crimes can outline the concept of "organized cyber-crime". Hackers are grouping into gangs in order to do things more efficiently and their schemes are evolving, with multi-stage attacks becoming more and more common.
"In the last several Internet Security Threat Reports, Symantec discussed a significant shift in attackers motivated from fame to fortune," said Arthur Wong, senior vice president, Symantec Security Response and Managed Services. "The Internet threats and malicious activity we are currently tracking demonstrate that hackers are taking this trend to the next level by making cybercrime their actual profession, and they are employing business-like practices to successfully accomplish this goal."