IBM report claims cyber attacks a hit for organized crime

Armonk (NY) - A new report from IBM shows that cyber crimes are increasing in sophistication and organization "at a rate never before seen on the Internet."

The IBM X-Force report said that a "complex and sophisticated criminal economy" has expanded online to take advantage of every online hack and vulnerability possible.

The amount of underground companies dedicated to helping attackers has increased significantly. For example, IBM noted that 80% of attackers used "camouflaging" techniques to be more covert last year, compared to only 10% in 2006. A handful of black market operations aide exclusively in camouflaging, added IBM.

All these findings suggest that 2008 will see a proliferation of cyber attacks, according to IBM. "Never before have such aggressive measures been sustained by Internet attackers towards infection, propagation and security evasion," said IBM research manager Kris Lamb.

This means that users’ social security numbers, bank information, and other personal data is ever more at risk, despite an increasing obsession with cyber security.

One good point, though, is that 2007 saw the first decline in spam since before 2005. IBM thanked an increase in anti-spam filters for the change.