Cybercriminals are amassing giant databases of information from
Trojans on business, government and military computers, RSA's
cyber fraud expert has warned.
It is only a matter of time before cybercriminals learn to
monetise that information, Uri Rivner, head of new technologies,
consumer identity protection, told the RSA Conference Europe
2009.
Thousands of infected computers are siphoning out access
credentials and information sent and received in every online
transaction in these organisations, he said.
These organisations need to understand that every infected PC
that connects to their network provides a way in for
cybercriminals, said Rivner.
Security researchers expect to see evidence soon of
cybercriminals starting to
sell off this wealth of information they are gathering to
enable a much wider spread of criminal activity.
No further attacks will be necessary for the threat to
organisations in the public and private sector to escalate as the
information gathering Trojans are already in place, said
Rivner.
Virtualised desktops is likely to be the next trend in security
defences that organisations will deploy to add another layer of
defence against this threat, he said.
Virtualising desktops is the only way organisations will be able
to get back control through complete visibility of all information
flows in and out of their networks, said Rivner.
No single technology is the answer, he said, but virtualisation
will give organisations greater control as they will see all
transactions - not just those performed during secure sessions.
Right now, many corporate machines are picking up infections
while disconnected from secure channels, which the organisations
don't know about, he said.
The Trojans on those machines are able to gather information
while the computer is connected to corporate network and then
forward that information to criminals when the VPN session is
ended.
Another key advantage of virtualisation is that even if an
infection occurs, the virtual machine can just be killed off
without exposing the rest of the network, said Rivner.