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According to global cyber security solutions provider Symantec, cyber crime provides more earnings to people than drug trafficking.
According to the vice-president of the Symantec consumer business unit of Asia-pacific region, David Freer, "Cyber crime has surpassed drug trafficking as a criminal money-maker. Every three seconds, an identity is stolen worldwide”.
Hackers are the major committers of cyber crimes for which they use tools like malware, spam, virus and bots. Hackers use spyware, fake anti-virus applications, e-mail and phishing to trick netizens into parting with their personal data and even money.
"Phony e-mails, fake websites and online advertisements trick netizens into divulging personal data such as social security and credit card numbers," Freer said at a demo of Symantec's Norton anti-virus 2010 product. This is equipped with cyber crime detection technology.
The reports from Symantec show the information regarding how the criminals steal the personal data information of the netizens only for selling to the highest bidder on the online black market.
During the beta testing of Norton 2010, Symantec detected and blocked a whopping 245 million attempted malicious code attacks every month the world over in 2008.
"The increasing use of Internet and web for a plethora of services and applications has made computers vulnerable to malicious attacks," Freer said.
"The phenomenal growth of Internet traffic for mailing, surfing, browsing, social networking, buying or selling expose netizens to online thieves who will stop at nothing to steal anything, be it money, identity, signature and even names," Symantec marketing head in Asia-Pacific David Hall said.
Norton 2010 unveils a new model of security, code-named Quorum, for the detection of malware. Quorum has the potential for tracking files, applications as well as attributes like age, source of download, digital signature and prevalence.
"These attributes are combined using complex algorithms to determine a reputation. As a file is distributed across the Internet and these attributes change, Quorum updates the reputation of the file, which is significant when a file is new and likely to be a threat," Hall said.
India is the third largest home to cyber crime in Asia.
"Since cyber criminals destroy lives more than computers, we have raised the bar for Internet security and set a new standard for the industry. The new version empowers netizens to deny digital dangers for a safe online experience," Hall claimed.
The Internet security version is priced at Rs.1,450 for a single licence and the anti-virus version is Rs.1,125 for a single user.
