The US With a high number of Internet connections and a rich history of Web- and computer-literate criminals, the US is understandably the major focus for much of the discussion into the current global problem of cyber crime. For example, according to Spamhaus, the US is not only responsible for more spam than any other nation, it is actually far worse than the rest of the current top 10 put together.
Though much US spam has traditionally travelled via China, the US does certainly harbour some of the most prolific spammers in the world, as well as the world’s three worst ISPs for relaying spam, says Spamhaus.
That ISP figure points towards a hidden menace which further blurs the boundaries of cyber crime — the sheer number of PCs that have been compromised and are churning out spam and malware unbeknownst to their owners.
China China leads the way in terms of originating Internet attacks, accounting for just over one-quarter of all reports last year of Internet attacks and probes, according to Kaspersky Labs.
Russia and the Baltic States Despite the popular myth that ‘The Russians’ are the greatest threat to Internet security, Russia accounted for only two percent of Internet attacks and probes last year. The eponymous founder of Kaspersky Labs blames the stereotype on the American media, suggesting propaganda and political point-scoring has done little to paint a clearer picture of which countries are responsible for what kinds of attacks. Nonetheless, the reputation of Russia and the Baltic States has certainly been tarnished in recent years by a growing trend towards blackmail with threats of denial of service attacks.
And while this is in no way unique to these parts of the former Soviet Union — as all crimes, if successful, will develop a global appeal — experts claim it is a crime that was pioneered in the region — though targets were often based in the US or Western Europe.
Europe also has a very active hacker network and recent years have seen a number of European virus writers arrested in relation to serious attacks. As with the US, Europe is also guilty of relaying a great deal of malware infections via unguarded home PCs and large ISPs, though this may see Europeans cast as the ‘mule’ rather than the criminal at source.
Take West Africa, which has become synonymous with electronic fraud in the wake of so-called 419 e-mail scams and other Internet-based fraud originating from Nigeria.
South America has seen many instances of Web site defacements and although these are a worldwide problem it is certainly a hotbed for this type of activity.
In less politically stable regions, such as the Middle East, we have seen several Web sites vandalised as well as sites defaced with a political message — often called ‘hacktivism’, though this is small scale and lacks the severity of impact that other attacks have. Similarly the use of Trojans and other spying technologies appears to have found some popularity in Israel but again it is far from unique to the one country.
In conclusion, while it is worth identifying the most obvious and most serious trends in global cyber crime, we must realise it is never going to be as straightforward as assuming the battle lines are drawn as clearly as the national boundaries on the map.
http://www.zdnet.com.au/insight/security/soa/A_globetrotter_s_guide_to_cyber_crime/0,39023764,39255969,00.htm