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By: Nikola Strahija on November 25, 2002
Software and proprietary data copying, piracy, deletion and alteration as well as online vandalism are some of the illicit methods being increasingly adopted by Brazilian hackers and cyber crime syndicates.
The top ten most active hacking groups in November 2002 are all
Brazilian, of which the five most prolific are: BYS (Breaking Your
Security), Ir4dex, Endiabrad0s, Virtual Hell and rya (Rooting Your
Admin). As a result, Portuguese has now become the lingua franca of the
hacking underground.
Brazilian hack attacks are due to:
1. The proliferation of freely available automated attack tools
that can be launched by experts and script-kiddies alike;
2. Relatively few laws to prevent digital crime giving rise to
hacking communities; and
3. High incidence of organised crime syndicates exploiting
cross-boundary opportunities
Very few Brazilian hackers are the highly skilled computer savants in
the mould of the Eastern Europeans in the late 1990s, who had breached
computer security in a customised way and also wrote their own programs
for attack as needed. For the moment, Brazil does not appear to be a
major source of viruses and worms. Only 4 of the 296 new viruses,
worms, trojans and malware discovered in 2002 are known to have
originated in Brazil.
"It has rarely been the case since 1995 that one country has dominated
digital criminal activity to the extent that Brazil now does. Brazilian
hacking in 2002 has cost billions of Dollars in G-8 countries alone,"
said DK Matai, Chairman and CEO of mi2g. "This has now become a global
issue. G-8 countries will have to apply pressure on the Brazilian
authorities to take appropriate measures to stamp out this illicit
export. If not, the Brazilian digital skills could just as easily be
bought by other rogue elements with their own agendas."
The top five victims of overt digital attacks in 2002 so far have been
USA (24,611), Brazil (4,874), UK (4,735), Germany (4,474) and Italy
(2,565). The top three hackers in November targeting systems based in
USA were all Brazilian - Endiabrad0s (398), Ir4dex (378) and Virtual
Hell (351).
The worldwide economic damage in 2002 from overt and covert digital
attacks including viruses and worms is estimated to be between $37 and
$45 Billion Dollars.
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