Russian call for "internetpol" to fight cybercrime
Date: January 29, 2008Source: Business.Theage.com.au
EUGENE Kaspersky really hates the 2007 Hollywood blockbuster Die Hard 4.0, in which computer hackers attempt to steal billions of dollars by crashing computer systems across the US.
But he doesn't hate it because it's a far-fetched movie with implausible action sequences or plot holes you could drive a semi through.
As the co-founder and chief executive of the Moscow-based anti-virus and software security company Kaspersky Lab, he gets upset at anything that might give a malicious genius new ideas about how to wreak havoc on the world's technology infrastructure.
"I don't like these kind of movies," Kaspersky says. "I don't want to have a company that educates the bad guys, so I'm not discussing Die Hard."
He points to the Slammer worm, which within 10 minutes of its release on January 25, 2003, was well on its way to infecting 75,000 machines. These subsequently launched a distributed denial-of-service attack that significantly slowed internet traffic.
Kaspersky says he had been talking to authorities and governments about just such a possibility, but deliberately did not make its theorising public.
In its home market Kaspersky Lab is a giant, being the largest software tools supplier for virus and other malicious software (also called malware) removal in Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States. It was founded 10 years ago, with four people, and today has grown to employ more than 800 worldwide.
The privately held company expects to report a profit of $US40 million ($A45.5 million) on revenue of more than $US200 million for 2007, with hopes of revenue hitting $US330 million this year and close to $US1 billion in 2010.
Kaspersky is aware of the incongruity of being an anti-virus company in Russia, a country considered by many to be the source of much of the world's malicious software code. But he disputes this assumption.
One of the most common — but least accurate — means of determining the place of origin of malicious code is to study the language of any written comments embedded in it. "Just because they use Russian characters, that doesn't mean they are Russian citizens — they could be Russian-speaking persons in Europe or the United States," he says.
Kaspersky believes it is even possible that one of the most notorious cybercrime groups, the Russian Business Network, may have been backed by Russians living in the US.
"In Germany, spammers are recognised as being Americans," Kaspersky says. "And Americans think criminals and hackers are Russian. So both are wrong — they are everywhere. And this network (RBM), this criminal service, is just one of a dozen such networks around the globe."
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