Are Digital Gangsters on the Rise?

Organized crime is expected to band together with hackers in 2007 to form a more robust cybercrime community, according to a new report.

In 2006, cybercrime and the evolution of cybercriminals were clearly on the rise. Websense, a Web security company, predicts that the trend will only increase this year. The beefed-up online crime cooperative will buy, sell and trade ready-made cyberattack toolkits and exploits using zero-day vulnerabilities, and the market for zero-day attack code will become more competitive.

According to Dan Hubbard, vice president of security research at Websense, "Organized criminals are realizing that the Internet has been largely untapped in terms of generating real profit--until now. With financial gain on the table, attack methods are improving and the number of people involved is escalating." --Sharon Gaudin, [email protected]