'Online hoodies' stalking the web (28/10/2007)

[The Stig]

Source: http://www.metro.co.uk/news/article....icle_id=375889

A new generation of 'online hoodies' is wreaking havoc in cyberspace, Internet security experts are warning.

The hackers, some as young as 12, begin by phishing for identities on social networking sites before graduating to stealing cash from PayPal accounts. Their scams are believed to be raking in thousands of pounds.
Some even post step-by-step guides on how to pull off the scams - although these are often just another attempt to get money from gullible copycats.



They see themselves as stars and want to boast about their exploits, with one selling T-shirts bearing his online name and proclaiming himself 'the greatest hacker of all time'.
Web security expert Maksym Schipka, whose wife's professional site was defaced, said: 'They know more than we do, they can do more than we can, they understand it better.'
The young hackers are said to be growing increasingly sophisticated.
'There's now a whole sub-industry where people will supply these kids with custom-made tools to create phishing pages to steal bank details,' said web expert Chris Boyd.
Many of the perpetrators boast about what they do on video sharing sites such as YouTube.
Mr Boyd, of internet security firm, FaceTime, added: 'One 12-year-old kid ran a huge forum with thousands of users sharing tips on stealing credit card details and bank details.'
The government concedes online crime is a growing problem and next spring a £7million police unit starts work to combat the latest trend.
But a Home Office spokesman said the 'age of perpetrators isn't an issue'.

Saw this in the daily free newspaper that you can pick up at train stations today... all I can say is, LOL

Initially I thought it was just about e-thugs and people trolling the web but this is pretty funny.

How sophisticated can it really get? Is it really that much of an huge issue? A little bit of education and Norton Antivirus can go a long way... but I guess at the end of the day it's down to the individual? Apart from the usual "scams" that I'm sure everyone who buys online is aware about, I really can't think of anything new...

[Reapz]

2007? Obviously old news

[Tricen]

Of an huge issue it is.

[The Stig]

Oops. Meant to be 2008 ¬_¬

[Lampoon]

It's funny how people's egos become their own undoing.

[Chicomagiko]

So... script kiddies are serious business?

[Khamsin]

With all this talk of sophistication and talented hackers, it sounds like those 12 year olds aren't script kiddies but instead hackers capable of cracking encrypted corporate and government systems, such as high profile banks, multibillion dollar technology corporations, and the department of defense.

[Elesirdur]

With all this talk of sophistication and talented hackers, it sounds like those 12 year olds aren't script kiddies but instead hackers capable of cracking encrypted corporate and government systems, such as high profile banks, multibillion dollar technology corporations, and the department of defense.

I'm pretty sure most reporter's concept of "hacking" comes from watching The Net and Hackers back in the 90s when most people would genuinely believe that the Internet was a "series of tubes". >_>

[Chicomagiko]

I'm pretty sure most reporter's concept of "hacking" comes from watching The Net and Hackers back in the 90s when most people would genuinely believe that the Internet was a "series of tubes". >_>

This, Also, if you do a search on that website's page for the reporter's name. You'll find that most of his pieces are sensationalistic in value. One can deduce he falls in the quoted camp of reporters.

Also, he should die for this:

http://www.metro.co.uk/news/article....4&in_a_source=

[Vandalhart]

Guys, let me tell you about this email I recieved the other day.
It was from the Minister of Finance in Nigera. If all things go well, I'll be a rich man
by the end of the day.

[Elesirdur]

This, Also, if you do a search on that website's page for the reporter's name. You'll find that most of his pieces are sensationalistic in value. One can deduce he falls in the quoted camp of reporters.

Also, he should die for this:

http://www.metro.co.uk/news/article....4&in_a_source=

That's some Pulitzer prize-winning investigative journalism right there!

[Cesaria]

LOL I see the quality of Metro journalism continues to be as crap as when they employed my idiot father to write for them (although to be fair he did only get to muck up the sports pages).

I've had a pretty much stand up row with my mum at one point when she trained journalists and had them write an article on internet safety - which was pretty much of this level from most of the kids in question... newspapers do not seem to "get" the internet.

[Drex]

This sounds like it's leaning more towards social-engineering than hacking to me, though it's hard to tell since the article writer isn't exactly well-informed