Show Me the Money

Malware, viruses and trojans are all about infecting your system and crawling around to see what they can get their hands on. Back in the day when viruses were just a way to get known within the hacker community, the largest concern was about the disruption in productivity. Viruses and malware were created to be a big nuisance. The bigger the nuisance, the better the notoriety, the more success to the initiator.

At one time a full identity costs approximately $1000 on the black market. Today, it is valued at $11.

Today is a brave new world. The methods have become craftier. The infections have become harder to detect. But why?

Money!

Today's issue isn't about productivity. In fact, they want you systems to remain active. The more productivity the better! This lets them know they haven't yet been detected and that they have more of a chance to get good information. The more information, the higher probability that information will lead to money.

The sit and wait game is very popular. The longer the malware sits on the infected PC, the more username, password, bank accounts, friends' email addresses, business associates, etc they can get their hands on. If you don't give up your bank account info to their malicious software, what if they send you an email from your bank saying your account has been compromised asking you to supply a new password?

All of this information is bought and sold on the black market. At one time a full identity costs approximately $1000 on the black market. Today, it is valued at $11. This means that someone can buy 90+ identities for the same price as just one a few years ago.

If you have a great list of addresses and credit cards and can sell it or trade it to someone with a great list of driver license numbers, addresses included, and social security numbers, well you have many identities at your combined disposal.

How do you stay protected?

Today, software that was once only available as a corporate enterprise package can now be used for personal use in your home; Detect and remove spyware with Anti-Spyware 2008 from CA

Be careful not to share information with anyone you don't know. Be fully aware that any electronic purchase, not just online, is at risk.

Credit card purchases can actually be safer online that at the physical store. Some credit card vendors allow you to get "Safe Pay" numbers to use when making online purchases. This is a temporary number different than your actual card number that has an amount and expiration date set to your needs.

Ordering pizza online? Set a $60 value to expire in 2 months and you can use that number to order pizzas and only order pizzas. If that number is compromised, they can't use it for more than the remainder of the $60.

Going to the store, they have your actual card number. Even if you swipe your card, many stores process and store credit card numbers in a database. If that database is compromised, so is your card number.

In essence there isn't much you can do other than keep a watchful eye. Get your credit report printed quarterly and have a quick glance for anything out of the ordinary. You can also limit the number of cards you have for easier tracking. Don't open emails from people you don't know, even if it says you do know them.

Better yet, view emails in text only. Many email clients, including Microsoft Outlook, allow for a "view emails in text" option. When the html default displays emails it looks pretty but also can run code in the background. Since it is html enabled it acts just as if you went to a malicious website.

Link to this article:
<a href="http://www.malwareadvice.com/Monetizing-From-Malware.php" target="_blank">Show Me the Money</a>