Gang culture in the online world

Abstract

It was only a matter of time before hackers pooled their skills and resources to form organised cyber gangs better equipped to spread malware and spam. Clandestine collectives from blackhat strongholds in Eastern Europe, the US and China are emerging. Their tactics may vary but their designs are always the same: to siphon money from consumers and businesses alike by fraud, theft or extortion. Simon Heron of Network Box explores the impetus for these collaborations; the gangs’ character traits and their tools of the trade, how they recruit members, and how the turf wars rage unseen inside PCs. The era when script kiddies were the primary online threat has long since passed. Today, hacking and malicious code are big business. Too big, it would seem, for some black hats to manage single-handed.