Cyber Gangs Mimic Legitimate Corporations

Cyber Gangs Mimic Legitimate Corporations with Roles, Duties

This was written by Camille Tuutti on Tuesday, March 30, 2010, 8:24.

Through a series of sting operations, the FBI has uncovered how cyber criminals have begun adopting a hierarchy commonly found in the corporate world, with distinctive roles and responsibilities delegated to each individual, according to Steven Chabinsky, deputy assistant director of FBI’s cyber division.

As opposed to legitimate organizations and employees, cyber criminals don’t have to adhere to regular 9-5 schedules, and they’re often willing to work as much as they need to plan out new opportunities within a short period of time, Chabinsky said during a presentation titled “The Cyber Threat: Who’s Doing What to Whom?” at last week’s FOSE conference.

Chabinsky also listed the 10 highest positions within a cyber-crime organization:

1.    Coders: Those responsible for creating malicious code that will be used to exploit vulnerabilities in programs and systems.

2.    Distributors: Individuals who buy and sell stolen data, as well as act as representatives for products from other specialty areas.

3.    Techies: A group that maintains cyber criminals’ IT infrastructure, including servers and databases.

4.    Hackers: Individuals who search and exploit vulnerabilities in systems and applications.

5.    Fraudsters: By using social engineering, they create variations of phishing and spamming.

6.    Webmasters: People who allow their servers and similar resources to be used for cyber attacks.

7.    Cashiers: Offer stolen user accounts for a fee.

8.    Money mules: Make economic transactions and sometimes travel to the United States on student or work visas to open accounts.

9.    Money launderers: Work with currency and transfers to launder money.

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