Botnets, Phishing, and Identity Theft

In today's business and consumer computing space, a financially-motivated "Ecosystem" of multiple players exists. This ecosystem complete with its own lucrative buying and selling "Microeconomy" is fueling a rapidly growing crime wave. Recently, malicious attacks involving tens of thousands of virus-infected PCs worldwide have targeted major organizations such as Microsoft, Google, Yahoo!, the U.S. Internal Revenue Service, and UK online betting firm Blue Square. These computers infected via back door programs and controlled through Internet Relay Chat (IRC) commands are covertly hijacked with software bots, applications that serve as agents to surreptitiously collect information. This mass infection transforms compromised PCs into botnets, networks of machines that serve numerous fraudulent purposes.