Images Source: www.sxc.hu

I had a friend recently tell me not to buy a CD that I was interested in because he had a copy of it and he would let me borrow. Although they didn’t tell me to go burn the disc so I would avoid buying it, but that’s the impression I got. My opinion is that’s plainly theft and piracy. Is there any difference between stealing that data and information and stealing any other property? I don’t think so.

Let’s expand that question to software itself. Do you install legal software on your machine? Do you get hacks and codes to circumvent user registration keys? What’s the difference?

Maybe your argument is that new copy of Microsoft Office isn’t worth $900 so why should I pay for it? Because that’s the price folks. If you don’t think it’s worth that, then don’t buy. Go download OpenOffice or get what use you can from Google Docs.

Post from: EveryJoe

Piracy of the Software Kind

Read the Symantec Report on the Underground Economy or listen to the corresponding Symantec podcast by Zulfikar Ramzan, the Security Technology & Response Technical Director.

Symantec estimates the value of total advertised goods on the underground servers as up to $276 Million and this figure is from only the underground they had access to. Mr. Ramzan said in the podcast how the actual size is extremely tough to estimate, what with the smartest of the criminals remaining in the underground of underground.

It is alarming and interesting to see how the underground economy functions, in ways similar to any other economy. The trends, I believe, will remain upward because cybercrime is still in its infancy even though there are already malicious but very smart people out there.

A person without any knowledge about cybercrime could start by getting access to any of the malicious tools like the Attack toolkits and Keystroke loggers. However, there are specialized roles within cybercrime each of which can’t be done by just about anybody.

Once goods or information are stolen, they are advertised, sold and resold.

Pirated softwares include desktop games, multimedia software, business software suites and OSs. Some of them could be offered for free to establish their credibility, but those with greater consumer demand are also often attached with malwares. The pricing of pirated goods is often proportional to identical trends in the genuine softwares.

However, according to the report, pirated softwares make only one-third of the underworld economy. Sensitive information is more popular. The above screenshot shows a table with the percentage-wise division of the top kinds of sensitive information that the cyber criminals are after. It sends a chill down my spine, especially with the 4th and 5th ranks.

An interesting tidbit: The United States hosted 41 percent of the total observed underground economy servers worldwide, while Romania had the second highest percentage at 13 percent of the total. Romania! Who would have guessed?

Image Source: Symantec.

Post from: EveryJoe

Symantec Report on the Underground Economy