Cyber gangs make IT students an offer they can't refuse

Adam Turner
Monday, 11 December 2006 20:10

Your IT - Home IT

Organised crime is using KGB-style recruitment techniques to hire computer students to do their online dirty work, according to Internet security firm McAfee.

Promising would-be-hackers are being approached on university campuses and at trade shows and paid to write spyware and run identity theft scams, according McAfee's latest Virtual Criminology report - compiled with input from the FBI and several European hi-tech crime units.

"Although organised criminals may have less of the expertise and access needed to commit cybercrimes, they have the funds to buy the necessary people to do it for them," the report says.

"Criminals are exploiting the fact that the cyber-world represents a vast domain of global opportunity with virtually no barriers and little risk of detection and punishment."

Some students even have their tuition paid and, after graduation, are installed as sleepers in large corporations, the report claims. Those responsible are particularly targeting students in Eastern Europe.

"Many of these cybercriminals see the Internet as a job opportunity," McAfee quoted FBI Internet security expert Dave Thomas as saying. "With low employment, they can use their technical skills to feed their family."