Ride the Lightning

FROM RUSSIA WITHOUT LOVE: MALWARE WRITERS THRIVE

October 15, 2007

From time to time, we are asked to help nail down the source of malware. All too often, this is like climbing the Matterhorn. Once we trace things back to Korea, China, Romania, Russia, etc., we shake our heads. The sad truth is that law enforcement in those counties have very little incentive to assist. Once in a while, Interpol receives some cooperation but that is a slow and very high level process. It was interesting to read an article by security writer Bill Brenner about just how well Russian malware authors are doing. Russia’s economy is lousy and its law enforcement is lax – budget issues and lack of training in electronic evidence and computer forensics are often cited as reasons for the failure to properly conduct investigations. Cynics might suspect, in light of the well known growth of the Russian Mafia, that some authorities are simply on the take. There is a heck of a lot of money in writing malware. Many Russian malware writers take the view that they write the code, but criminals execute it and the code authors are therefore not to be blamed. Interesting disconnect. If you build the bomb, but don’t press the button, you apparently have no complicity. Only China now trumps Russian in the amount of malware production, rather a dubious achievement. The full article may be found at http://www.tiny.cc/RqUZ9

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