MORE must be done to combat the lucrative trade in malicious software, which threatens sensitive government networks and personal data, the head of the United States National Cybersecurity Center has warned.
In his first interview since taking up the post in March, Mr Philip Reitinger said that the spread of so-called malware like botnets - software that hijacks computers to mine sensitive data - now constitutes an 'underground market economy' that is spreading attacks.
'There is an entire community of people... Organised crime is involved. Hackers now not only assemble botnets, they (also) sell botnets.
'We have seen, lately, some of the risk to national-government capabilities from botnet attacks,' said Mr Reitinger, who heads the Department of Homeland Security's cyber-security operations.
His warning comes weeks after US President Barack Obama unveiled a review of cyber-security policy, which found that the country's digital infrastructure was 'not secure or resilient' to combat cybercrime and state-sponsored intrusions.
The US electricity grid and F-35 fighter-jet programmes were reportedly the target of attacks, amid dark hints of backing from foreign governments.
'Everyone thought of hackers as sort of curious kids that sat in their room and banged on the computer (keyboard) late into the night with their pizza boxes...to make a name for themselves.
'Cracking is very different now, the threats have become much more sophisticated,' Mr Reitinger said.
'The hackers, who used to worry about making a name for themselves by putting graffiti on 100,000 systems, now want to attack one system and get specific information from it, or attack 50 systems and get credit- card information.'
He said the trade in malware was spreading hackers' capabilities and making the origin of attacks harder to trace.
'The same type of techniques that are used for one type of attack would be used for another type of attack. People are trying to get access to systems and get the information off them,' he said.
'There is certainly a market economy for botnets, where people will buy and sell botted computers, so you could go online and say 'I'd like to launch a denial-of-service attack against XYZ', and you could pay money and have that denial-of-service attack launched.'
He said global cooperation and government measures to help businesses improve online identity checks were needed. - AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
