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Organized crime rings and petty thieves are flocking to the Internet like start-ups in the go-go '90s, federal authorities say — establishing a multibillion-dollar underground economy in just a few years, USA TODAY reports.
"Willie Sutton used to say he robbed banks because that's where the money is," says FBI Agent Keith Lourdeau, an expert on cybercrime. "The same applies today to crooks and the Internet."
Lured by shoddy computer security and the ability to commit crimes from far-flung countries, the Russian mafia and other Eastern European gangs are plunging into spam, phishing schemes, cyberextortion and the trafficking of stolen goods online, authorities say.
Criminals shop on illicit computer bulletin boards for stolen credit card numbers as they would for books on Amazon.com. They threaten devastating electronic attacks on Web sites unless they are paid. Online bank accounts are under siege. And millions of hijacked computers, or zombies — infected with malicious code under the control of a hacker without the owner's knowledge — perpetrate the schemes without a trail.
Consumers and businesses, as a consequence, lost at least $14 billion to digital thieves last year, although most of the crimes went undetected or unreported, experts say.
"Willie Sutton used to say he robbed banks because that's where the money is," says FBI Agent Keith Lourdeau, an expert on cybercrime. "The same applies today to crooks and the Internet."
Lured by shoddy computer security and the ability to commit crimes from far-flung countries, the Russian mafia and other Eastern European gangs are plunging into spam, phishing schemes, cyberextortion and the trafficking of stolen goods online, authorities say.
Criminals shop on illicit computer bulletin boards for stolen credit card numbers as they would for books on Amazon.com. They threaten devastating electronic attacks on Web sites unless they are paid. Online bank accounts are under siege. And millions of hijacked computers, or zombies — infected with malicious code under the control of a hacker without the owner's knowledge — perpetrate the schemes without a trail.
Consumers and businesses, as a consequence, lost at least $14 billion to digital thieves last year, although most of the crimes went undetected or unreported, experts say.