The Russian Business Network (RBN) is a real cybercrime organization, specializing in a multitude of criminal activities including personal identity theft for resale. The RBN originated as an ISP for child pornography, phishing, spam and malware distribution, now specializes in supported organized crime to target victims internationally. Research indicates the Russian Government protects the organization.
VeriSign has described the RBN as “the baddest of the bad” and according to the Economist (Sept 30, 2007) some businesses that take active stands against the RBN are sometimes targeted by denial of service attacks originating in the RBN network.
The Russian Business Network sells the Zeus malware, a program that infects computers, enslaves them in botnets, and is at the heart of attacks on businesses to steal online banking credentials for use in fraud.
Implications:
Organization’s need to up their game. We are no longer fighting script-kiddies (rookie hackers), we are fighting highly motivated organized crime. It is time to increase IT security budgets or get out of the game. Small organizations have the biggest challenges. Prioritization of security efforts is the only hope. TAG’s security vulnerability and penetration testing services will identify security weaknesses and will suggest a prioritization.
- TAG