Edited screen shot of PC vs. Mac commercial

Perhaps not so much anymore. Viruses may have a notch on their Apple belt now that researchers with Symantec have discovered what could be the first Mac and OSX based zombie machines executing denial-of-service attacks on a network.

They describe this as the “first real attempt to create a Mac botnet” and notes that the zombie Macs are already being used for nefarious purposes.

The researchers pointed to this blog entry that describes a a PHP script, running as root, launching attacks against an unknown Web site.

I’m not a Mac hater, I just hate the blind zeal that most Mac supporters have for their systems and machines and the thought that they’re absolutely impervious to any malicious activity or problems with crashing. I do enjoy seeing news about a chink in Mac’s armor, shiny and white as it is.

Post from: EveryJoe

Zombie Macs and Unicorns

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