6. More Activity From The Cyber Underworld
It's a fact. Underground cybercrime organizations are becoming stronger and more powerful. In the past few years, large groups of loosely organized hackers have coalesced into well-managed, highly organized and financially-driven networks. And they're looking to extend that network by delegating responsibilities. Experts expect to see more "hacking services" being offered, such as botnet rentals and harvested accounts sold to the highest bidder on auctioning Web sites. Rootkits and exploit kits will be adopted to automate the processes. And more incentives will be offered to "script kiddies," who will provide hacking services to these organizations on a contract basis.
And more will be tempted to join the dark side as the economy worsens and more underground channels are opened up, experts say. "There's just too much darn money to be made," said Dave Marcus, security research and communications manager at McAfee. "And where there's money, there's going to be organization."
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