Blazingpie
01-10-2007, 07:25 AM
Via http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/hacking_20.php
Basically the article talks about how hackers are going for money now instead of the fame, etc. They talk about this as it's a new phenomenon, but I read about it over a year ago...
One trick is for a hacker to get a list of email addresses to sell to marketing firms. However, the list he steals gets sold to a company, who sells to a company, who sells to a company, etc, etc till the final company actually goes and sends out the marketing emails (aka spam). The annoying thing is that while the spam is illegal, no one can trace the source of the list as it's gone through too many layers and is often combined with other lists. Also, the hackers are teaming up with spammers directly. Sites are finding themselves being hacked, but instead of being defaced the hacker sells the access details to spammers who then use the zombie machine to do their evil deeds. Sometimes you even ahve to check for cronjobs as the hackers have been known to use them to reload the script from a backup if it gets deleted.
it's amazing how more and more parts of the online world are becoming profit-orientated. In many ways this is good as it means that many ppl who lose their jobs can still get an income from online stuff, but bad as its like the net is losing it's innocence and sense of fun :(
Basically the article talks about how hackers are going for money now instead of the fame, etc. They talk about this as it's a new phenomenon, but I read about it over a year ago...
One trick is for a hacker to get a list of email addresses to sell to marketing firms. However, the list he steals gets sold to a company, who sells to a company, who sells to a company, etc, etc till the final company actually goes and sends out the marketing emails (aka spam). The annoying thing is that while the spam is illegal, no one can trace the source of the list as it's gone through too many layers and is often combined with other lists. Also, the hackers are teaming up with spammers directly. Sites are finding themselves being hacked, but instead of being defaced the hacker sells the access details to spammers who then use the zombie machine to do their evil deeds. Sometimes you even ahve to check for cronjobs as the hackers have been known to use them to reload the script from a backup if it gets deleted.
it's amazing how more and more parts of the online world are becoming profit-orientated. In many ways this is good as it means that many ppl who lose their jobs can still get an income from online stuff, but bad as its like the net is losing it's innocence and sense of fun :(