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Attacking criminal networks on the Internet
Carnegie Mellon University’s Adrian Perrig
and Jason Franklin, working in conjunction with Vern Paxson of the International
Computer Science Institute and Stefan Savage of the University of California,
San Diego, have designed new computer tools to better understand and potentially
thwart the growth of Internet black markets, where attackers use well-developed
business practices to hawk viruses, stolen data and attack services.
Perrig, an associate professor of electrical and computer
engineering and engineering and public policy said that these troublesome
entrepreneurs even offer tech support and free updates for their malicious
creations that run the gamut from denial of service attacks designed to
overwhelm Web sites and servers to data stealing Trojan viruses.
In order to understand the millions of lines of data
derived from monitoring the underground markets for more than seven months,
Carnegie Mellon researchers developed automated techniques to measure
and catalogue the activities of the shadowy online crooks who profit from
spewed spam, virus-laden PCs and identity theft. The researchers estimate
that the total value of the illegal materials available for sale in the
seven-month period could total more than $37 million.
Whatever the purchases, a buyer will typically contact
the black market vendor privately using e-mail, or in some cases, a private
instant message. Money generally changes hands through non-bank payment
services such as e-gold, making criminals difficult to track. To stem
the flow of stolen credit cards and identity data, Carnegie Mellon researchers
proposed two technical approaches to reduce the number of successful market
transactions, including a slander attack and another technique, which
were aimed at undercutting a cyber-crook’s verification or reputation
system.
The researchers also propose to undercut the burgeoning
black market activity by creating a deceptive sales environment. Perrig’s
team developed a technique to establish fake verified-status identities
that are difficult to distinguish from other-verified status sellers making
it hard for buyers to identify the honest verified-status sellers from
dishonest verified-status sellers.
That growth is also reflected in the latest Computer
Security Institute (CSI) Computer Crime and Security Survey that shows
average cyber-losses more than doubled after a five-year decline. The
2007 CSI survey reported that U.S. companies on average lost more than
$300,000 to cyber crooks compared to $168,000 last year.
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