Cyber Crooks Leave Traditional Bank Robbers in the Dust

Source: Krebs on Security

Brian Krebs has done some comparisons between traditional armed bank hold-ups and cybercriminal account siphoning, based on FBI reports of bank robberies and cybercrime statistics revealed at the recent RSA conference. His conclusion: that cybercriminals are currently taking more than twice as much money as traditional armed robbery in the same time period in the USA.

Spanish police arrest masterminds of 'massive' botnet

Source: BBC News

Three Spanish men aged from 25 to 31 have been arrested for their alleged part in running the "Mariposa" botnet -- a network of nearly 13 million compromised computers, including machines inside more than half of the Fortune 1000 companies and 40 major banks. The botmasters are not sophisticated security experts, but rather built the botnet using third party black-hat tools.

See also coverage at The Register.

Targeting scams: Report of the ACCC on scam activity 2009

Source: Australian Competition & Consumer Commission

The ACCC today released its 2009 report on scam activity. This gives an overview of 2009, plus more detailed information on trends, steps taken to educate the public, and law enforcement or disruption actions taken against scammers. The report is available for download as a PDF.