Organised Crime Targets IT Staff
October 2003
Organised syndicates are targeting IT staff to carry out online crimes, according to the UK's National High Tech Crime Unit (NHTCU).While companies have been aware of the need to protect key management staff such as board members and IT directors, there has been less progress in protecting and monitoring IT and administrative staff.
And now these lower level staff are increasingly vulnerable to being subverted.
"Business has become host to organised crime parasites," said Detective Chief Superintendent Len Hynds, head of the NHTCU.
"There is infiltration. We haven't found a single case of this being through intimidation or other means; it's about making money."
Staff are typically targeted over a period of months in a social rather than work setting. Once recruited, IT staff are selling corporate secrets or allowing access to corporate systems for illegal use.
This can range from using the company's email servers to store illicit material or send out spam, to major breaches where funds or company secrets are stolen.
Since its inception the NHTCU has arrested over 100 people, ninety per cent of whom had an IT background.
It has found criminals are devoting significant resources to penetrating IT departments over long periods of time.
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