Russian gangs 'getting affiliates' to carry out criminal activity

2009-12-11

Russian gangs are getting together "a complex web of affiliates", who are carrying out their criminal activity online for them, it has been suggested.

According to Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant at Sophos, some of the people roped into these schemes may not even know they are aiding a criminal activity.

As for what the expert expects to see in the future, he believes there will be increasing attempts to find new victims to bring into a botnet.

"What we are increasingly seeing is the botnets fighting each other - attempting to commandeer compromised computers from one hacking gang's control into another's," he explained.

It is innocent users' computers where these internet-based battles are taking place, Mr Cluley added.

His comments come after the Cisco 2009 Annual Security Report indicated that the malware market got to a point where it is following basic economic principles like supply and demand.

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