Crimeware: what lies ahead?
Conferences & Talks

• Bjorn Markus Jakobsson

SDForum Security SIG

22 May 2008
Palo Alto, California, USA

description

Malware these days is pushed by organized crime, aided by phishing-like deceit tactics, and spread via advertisements, social networks and shrink-wrapped electronics. It captures keystrokes of individuals, spies on corporations and politicians, and threatens our national security by means of server takeovers, information leakage, and a potential deterioration of trust in the infrastructure. We no longer call it malware - we call it crimeware. Crimeware can only survive if attacks can be monetized, and is suppressed by the risk of traceability and legal action. The traditional form of monetization relies on stealing credentials... In this talk, we present and explain yet another, not yet publicized, attack type that would let absolutely untraceable attackers to cash out huge amounts, at the cost of tremendous damages to victim corporations. Discussion of this new kind of attack will allow us to look into the future and consider what new countermeasures are needed.