Malware Attacks Growing at Popular Websites - Other Legitimate Websites Hackers Use
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There are other legitimate websites that hackers use to promote their businesses. YouTube is not the only place these hackers advertise their trade, but they use other social networking websites and blogs as communication tools to stay in touch with their customers as well as business partners. For example, they keep blogs on livejournal.com. These hackers don't necessarily reveal their malware actions. Instead, they tend to communicate in code. For example, they may spew out fascist beliefs that only other groups will understand. Another communication method that hackers may use to advertise their trade is using an ICQ handle.
Tom Bowers, a senior security evangelist with Kapersky Lab, an anti-virus manufacturer, said that he is working with law enforcement officials to track down hackers through these social networking websites. However, these hackers are also watching the cops. At MySpace, for example, with a few lines of JavaScript code, anybody who comes to the page is automatically registered to the hacker's video channel. In other words, the profile page automatically records every single MySpace user that's visited it.
Law enforcement officials can get useful information, but because selling malware is not illegal, it will be challenging to bust these hackers. If law enforcement officials can prove the user intended to use the malware for criminal purposes, it can prosecute the person, and possibly the seller. But again, this can be difficult. Law enforcement will have to spend long hours on tracking these criminals. Unfortunately, catching these criminals is not at the top of list for the Department of Justice.
Fighting hackers has become a never-ending battle, and will always be. One way to combat the hackers is to not only implement more security measures, but IT security professionals must learn the mindset of hackers. In other words, they must think like hackers. For start, the IT security professionals can become familiar with the tools these hackers use. They'll also need to keep in mind that hackers will also think like them. But if IT security professionals are determined to win this battle, they must try to stay a couple of steps ahead of these criminals.
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