Sure, the "script kiddies" still abound online, unleashing high-profile annoyances designed to gain bragging rights. But security experts say more hackers are joining forces with fraudsters intent on profit, not publicity.
Working from Eastern Europe or Asia, cyber criminals target specific high-value targets rather than scattershot attacks, according to the Securities and Exchange Commission's (SEC) Internet enforcement unit.
Last week's civil lawsuit by the SEC against a Florida man is the latest example. The SEC said the suspects made off with $82,920 after allegedly hijacking two-dozen online brokerage accounts.
The money, according to the regulators' lawsuit, wound up in a bank in Riga, Latvia. The suspect, Aleksey Kamardin, may have fled to Russia, the lawsuit said.
In December, a New York federal court ordered the assets of a Russian citizen frozen after the SEC claimed the man made $353,609 manipulating stocks in a nearly identical manner as Kamardin.
And earlier this month, Swedish bank Nordea lost $1 million after Russian hackers allegedly logged the keystrokes of customers.
"We have a lot of these cases coming up," John Stark, head of the SEC's Internet bureau, told internetnews.com.
How much can criminals make looting online finances? Last year, E*Trade reimbursed customers $18 million lost to online fraud, as internetnews.com reported.
In the U.K., online bank customers lost $44 million in 2005 compared to $29 million in 2004, according to anti-spyware vendor PC Tools.
A Worrisome Nexus
A worrisome nexus of trends is also materializing, driven by the increasing use of online financial services and departure from the usual hacker targets.
Financial researcher Javelin Strategy said there are more than 10 million online brokerage accounts in the U.S. At the same time, last year 86 percent of phishing attempts targeted financial services, according to security vendor Symantec.
Stark said some of the recent complaints filed by government regulators are about using phishing or viruses to harvest passwords and then transferring the ill-gotten gains beyond the U.S. border, often to Russia.
Phishing for Financial Information
According to Stark, 21-year-old Tampa resident Kamardin allegedly gained control of 24 online brokerage accounts enabling him to liquidate their holdings and purchase stock he owned.
Then between July 13 and Aug. 25, 2006, he profited by selling from his own account the manipulated stocks, said the SEC, which added that the money from the supposed online stock scam was wired to Russia then sent to a bank in Riga, Latvia.
This article was first published on InternetNews.com. To read the full article, click here.
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