Fight Against Cyber-Crime Is On The Right Track, According To PandaLabs Q1 Report

BRACKNELL, U.K. - May 23, 2013 - PRLog -- Bracknell, May 2013

PandaLabs, Panda Security’s anti-malware laboratory, has published its Quarterly Report for Q1, analyzing the IT security events and incidents from January through March 2013. Despite the numerous security incidents that took place during the first quarter of the year, the fight against cyber-crime looks to be on the right track, and though there is still a long way to go, international co-operation among security agencies is beginning to pay off and criminals around the world are being brought to justice.
“The start of the year has seen some serious cyber-attacks, including the hacking of the Twitter accounts of major organizations such as the BBC or Burger King, and one of the biggest attacks ever, targeting some of the world's leading technology companies: Apple, Facebook, Microsoft and Twitter. But there have been some victories for security forces as well, including the arrest of a group of hackers accused of extortion using the infamous ‘Police Virus’,” said Luis Corrons, technical director of PandaLabs.

Android, Top Target for Mobile Malware
Practically all news regarding malware attacks on mobile platforms involved the Android operating system, which has the largest share of this market. In addition to the usual attacks, this quarter saw new techniques that deserve mention. A strain of Android malware -hidden inside Google Play- not only infected cell phones but could also infect computers via smartphones and tablets.
According to Corrons, the area of cyber-war and espionage is becoming more and more interesting. “Many countries are looking suspiciously at China regarding its suspected involvement in attacks on large organizations and public institutions around the world, and this could lead to real world consequences. There are those who argue for international agreements, a type of Geneva Convention, to attempt to establish limits to these activities”, he said.
The Fight against Cyber-Crime
On January 11, the European Commission inaugurated the European Cybercrime Center (EC3) in order to support member states in the fight against cyber-attacks. Also in January, the FBI published details of an investigation that began in 2010 and thwarted a gang of cyber-criminals who had infected more than a million computers since 2005. This operation stands out not least because of the coordination between security forces in different countries. The FBI had the support of police in Moldavia, Romania, Holland, Germany, Finland, Switzerland and the UK.

There are also many different aspects to the fight against cyber-crime. And one which is often ignored is the need to alert companies to the importance of dedicating resources to protecting customer data. As a timely reminder of this, the UK division of Sony Computer Entertainment was ordered to pay 250,000 pounds as a result of the theft of customer data in 2011. The sentence is the consequence of the lack of measures that the company had implemented to protect customer information.

Police Virus Scam
One of the most infamous cases of the last year or so has been the ‘Police Virus’. In February this virus once again hit the headlines, but this time for a very different reason. The Technological Investigation Brigade of Spain’s National Police, together with Europol and Interpol, dismantled the cyber-crime ring responsible for the Police Virus. “We noticed that the news mentioned the arrest of ‘the gang’ of cyber-criminals, yet the information we have at PandaLabs points to the existence of several gangs responsible for these attacks. We reached this conclusion after analyzing numerous variants of the malware over time, and observing significant differences between them. In short, we are afraid the Police Virus is not likely to go away anytime soon. Users shouldn’t lower their guard,” said Corrons.
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