Internet Criminals Recruit Students as Sleepers and Launch New Scams

A new report shows that organized gangs are going after students to recruit them into the workforce of Internet criminals. University undergrads are being offered cash incentives to become sleepers within large corporations. According to recent news in The Guardian, intelligence from the FBI, British and European hi-tech crime units, and security company McAfee, show that cybercriminals are going after students on social networking sites like MySpace. The McAfee report also shows that a fake ad posted on MySpace by hackers infected more than one million PCs with malware earlier this summer. Online criminals are going to great extents to come up with new methods of attacking and infecting PCs and corporations. Cyber criminals are also turning to cellphones where phishing emails and text messages easily fool many people into turning over personal information. For the first time ever, a criminal operation in Spain targeted two major mobile phone operators to send spam to mobile phones. The hack offered a free antivirus program, and users were duped into thinking it was an offer from the cellphone provider. When users clicked on the link, they would be infected with malicious programs. Users are also being warned about new attacks called "spear phishing" where emails look like they are from employers or colleagues. For more information on the recent activity of hackers and phishing scams, check out this story. It seems that cyber attacks are getting a whole lot more sophisticated.