Sale of Hacking Toolkits Enable Novices to Enter Cybercrime

The flourishing business of hacking is bringing about the gradual manufacture and marketing of toolkits empowering beginners to produce viruses, operate phishing scams and conduct several other types of malevolent operations.

A vendor of computer security products, Secure Computing Corporation, declared that the ongoing evolution and the great success of cyber scams are forcing hackers worldwide to progressively embrace the focused and profitable business. This flourishing business just entails marketing hacking instruments extending from specific viruses to full kits to cater to budding hackers, which would later on empower them to plan their own strikes.

The company alleged that presently, there are over 68,000 hacking devices waiting to be downloaded over the net.

According to news reported by Techtree on October 21, 2007, Benjamin Low, Secure Computing's Managing Director for Southeast Asia and India, believes that the world of online crime is developing at an impressive pace. Cyberpunks are becoming extremely advanced in their techniques of inventing novel means of breaching security systems and after having accomplished that, they are reaping the benefits of this flourishing industry by marketing their tried out solutions to others.

Most of the tools are available free of cost, but they do call for certain expertise to run them. More and more cyber-terrorists are extending their range of user-friendly kits like IcePack, MPack, Nuclear, Shark 2, and WebAttacker for marketing and have succeeded in motivating even the novices to enter the online crime world.

The kit vendors are also succeeding to evade legal consequences of their application by adding disclaimers that announce that the malware is available for "just educational use" with the customer assuming all accountability for the items utilization.

Low stated that there are several small threats concerning the hacking teams selling these kits. Although the kits are utilized to perpetrate cybercrimes, the hacking group can't be indicted, since every kit accompanies a disclaimer that states that the software is issued for educational uses and the consumer is responsible for any abuse, as reported by IDM.

The sole threat is that somebody might purloin the tool kits and vend it at more reduced costs than the cyber-terrorists.

Related article: Sale of Storm Botnet could Result in More Worms

» SPAMfighter News - 11/7/2007