Russian Cybercrime: Geeks, Not Gangsters

Source: Brian Prince, eWeek Europe

“When people think of cyber-crime, the typical image being pushed today is that of highly organised criminal operations. New research, however, suggests the underbelly of cyber-space may be less Mafia-like than some think.

The exploits of russian cyber-criminals are widely reported. For instance, a cheque scam was exposed at last month’s Black Hat event, and last year, it was alleged at the RSA show in London, that network provider the Russian Businesss Network, was aided by both Internet registrars and the Russian Police.

In an effort to improve the level of understanding of today’s black hats, security researchers Fyodor Yarochkin and “The Grugq” have spent several months looking at Russian hacker forums.

What the two found was that the image of a highly organised cyber-underworld run by hardcore criminals is not the order of the day. Instead, the dozen or so hacker forums they analysed illustrated that many of the users are “geeks, not gangsters,” the researchers said.”