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Updated Thursday, July 29, 2010 12:14 am TWN, AP



	In this photograph taken on Thursday, July 22, Joe Stewart, director of malware research for computer security company SecureWorks, is pictured in the company's security operations center in Atlanta, Georgia. (AP) Enlarge Photo

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Online counterfeiters get creative with latest con

Notable presentations this year are to include a demonstration of how to break into widely used ATMs, a talk that was pulled last year by the researcher's employer after complaints from the ATM maker. Researchers are also expected to discuss vulnerabilities in smart phones and in the technology used to secure online transactions.

A consistent theme at Black Hat, and at the related DefCon conference this weekend in Las Vegas, is that most Internet criminals are now motivated by money rather than mayhem. And they're getting more clever in their approaches as banks and other valuable targets tighten their security, as SecureWorks' three-month investigation into the check-counterfeiting ring found.

Dan Clements, a computer security expert who wasn't involved in SecureWorks' research, said the scheme represents a “very significant” escalation of the abilities of online crooks.

He said people should watch for small test charges that criminals make to figure out which accounts are still active, and avoid writing their driver's license numbers and other personal details on checks. He said the attackers were shrewd in their choice of targets.

“I think it's brilliant — it's where the data is,” he said. “It's a way to get into these accounts and they don't need to be in the country.”

It's unclear how much of the US$9 million in that scam the criminals actually got to keep.

The main bottleneck lies with the “money mules” — people recruited from online job sites to launder the money.

They were sent the bogus checks — via overnight shipping paid for with stolen credit cards — and asked to deposit them into their own bank accounts. They were then supposed to wire a portion to accounts in Russia.

Stewart said the six “mules” he was able to reach all told him they hadn't wired any money to the criminals because either they or their banks got suspicious. Many more likely did wire the money, however.

Stewart uncovered the scam while investigating malicious software that steals banking passwords.

In eavesdropping on one criminal group's communications, which he was able to do by infecting his own computer with the malicious program the group was using, he noticed that they were doing something unexpected: collecting massive amounts of images of checks.

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