Articles

E-mail RSS

Click Here To Download:
•White Paper: Botnets Change The Nature Of Online Fraud

By Rich Stuppy, Kount, Inc.

Lately, our conversations with ecommerce retailers, service providers and government agencies have taken on a recurring theme. This theme is that a new kind of fraud is emerging and traditional countermeasures can't stop it. As Director of IT Operations for a company that is battling fraud on multiple fronts, I'd like to offer insight into how botnets are changing the nature of online fraud and what needs to be done to stop it.

A botnet is a collection of compromised computers under the remote command and control of a criminal "botmaster." Botnets are not all that new, but historically their use was limited mainly to relaying spam and launching DDoS attacks. Recently however, organized crime elements have discovered that botnets can be used effectively to commit ecommerce fraud. This is accomplished by using compromised computers as proxies to submit fraudulent orders. This scheme is highly profitable and the perpetrators bear little risk of being caught.

The malware silently installed on compromised computers is insidious in and of itself. It is designed to log keystrokes, and sniff network traffic with the intent of stealing payment information and identity details. This data is captured and sent "home", and is often later found for sale in secret hacker chat rooms.

Click Here To Download:
•White Paper: Botnets Change The Nature Of Online Fraud