[Infowarrior] - Alarm raised on teenage hackers

[Richard Forno]

(Must be a slow news day......-rf)

Alarm raised on teenage hackers
By Mark Ward
Technology correspondent, BBC News


http://newsvote.bbc.co.uk/mpapps/pagetools/print/news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7690126.stm


Increasing numbers of teenagers are starting to dabble in hi-tech  
crime, say experts.

Computer security professionals say many net forums are populated by  
teenagers swapping credit card numbers, phishing kits and hacking tips.

The poor technical skills of many young hackers means they are very  
likely to get caught and arrested, they say.

Youth workers added that any teenager getting a criminal record would  
be putting their future at risk.

Slippery slope

"I see kids of 11 and 12 sharing credit card details and asking for  
hacks," said Chris Boyd, director of malware research at FaceTime  
Security.

Many teenagers got into low level crime by looking for exploits and  
cracks for their favourite computer games.

Communities and forums spring up where people start to swap malicious  
programs, knowledge and sometimes stolen data.

Some also look for exploits and virus code that can be run against the  
social networking sites popular with many young people. Some then try  
to peddle or use the details or accounts they net in this way.

Mr Boyd said he spent a lot of time tracking down the creators of many  
of the nuisance programs written to exploit users of social networking  
sites and the culprit was often a teenager.

 From such virus and nuisance programs, he said, many progress to  
outright criminal practices such as using phishing kits to create and  
run their own scams.

"Some are quite crude, some are clever and some are stupid," he said.

The teenagers' attempts to make money from their life of cyber crime  
usually came unstuck because of their poor technical skills.

"They do not even know enough to get a simple phishing or attack tool  
right," said Kevin Hogan, a senior manager Symantec Security Response.

"We have seen phishing sites that have broken images because the link,  
rather than reference the original webpage, is referencing a file on  
the C: drive that is not there," he said.

Symantec researchers have collected many examples of teenagers who  
have managed to cripple their own PCs by infecting them with viruses  
they have written.

Video choice

Chris Boyd from FaceTime said many of the young criminal hackers were  
undermined by their desire to win recognition for their exploits.

"They are obsessed with making videos of what they are doing," he said.

Many post videos of what they have done to sites such as YouTube and  
sign on with the same alias used to hack a site, run a phishing attack  
or write a web exploit.

Many share photos or other details of their life on other sites making  
it easy for computer security experts to track them down and get them  
shut down.

Mr Boyd's action to shut down one wannabe hacker, using the name  
YoGangsta50, was so comprehensive that it wrung a pledge from the  
teenager in question to never to get involved in petty hi-tech crime  
again.

Mathew Bevan, a reformed hacker who was arrested as a teenager and  
then acquitted for his online exploits, said it was no surprise that  
young people were indulging in online crime.

"It's about the thrill and power to prove they are somebody," he said.  
That also explains why they stuck with an alias or online identity  
even though it was compromised, he added.

"The aim of what they are doing is to get the fame within their peer  
group," he said. "They spend months or years developing who they are  
and their status. They do not want to give that up freely."

Graham Robb, a board member of the Youth Justice Board, said teenagers  
needed to appreciate the risks they took by falling into hi-tech crime.

"If they get a criminal record it stays with them," he said. "A  
Criminal Record Bureau check will throw that up and it could prevent  
access to jobs."

Anyone arrested and charged for the most serious crimes would carry  
their criminal record with them throughout their life.

Also, he added, young people needed to appreciate the impact of  
actions carried out via the net and a computer.

"Are they going to be able to live with the fact that they caused harm  
to other people?" he said. "They do not think there is someone losing  
their money or their savings from what they are doing.

"For a kid, getting a criminal record is the worst possible move."

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/technology/7690126.stm

Published: 2008/10/27 10:26:19 GMT

© BBC MMVIII