History of crimeware?

["Rob, grandpa of Ryan, Trevor, Devon & Hannah" <rmslade () shaw ca>]

C'mon, Infoworld, give us a break:

http://www.infoworld.com/d/security/short-history-crimeware-178123

"There are few viable options to combat crimeware's success in undermining 
today's technologies."

How about "don't do dangerous stuff"?

"Crimeware: Foundation of today's telescreens"

I'm sorry, what has "1984" to do with the use of malware by criminal elements?

"Advancement #1: Form-grabbing for PCs running IE/Windows
Form grabbing, as its name implies, is the crimeware technique for capturing web 
form data within browsers."

Can you say "login trojan"?  I knew you could.  They existed even before PCs did.

"Advancement #2: Anti-detection (also termed stealth)"

Oh, no!  Stealth!  Run!  We're all gonna die!

Possibly the first piece of malware to use some form of stealth technology to hide 
itself from detection was a virus.  Perhaps you might have heard of it.  It was 
called BRAIN, and was written in 1986.

"Advancement #5: Source code availability/release
The source codes for Zeus and SpyEye, among the most sophisticated crimeware, 
were publicly released in 2010 and 2011, respectively."

And the source code for Concept, which was, at the time, the most sophisticated 
macro virus (since it was the only macro virus), was released in 1995, respectively. 
 But wait!  The source code for the CHRISTMA exec was released in 1988!  Now 
how terrified are you!

"Crimeware in 2010 deployed the capability to disable anti-malware products"

And malware in 1991 deployed the capability to disable CPAV and MSAV.  With 
only fourteen bytes of code.  As a matter of fact, that fourteen byte string came 
to be used as an antivirus signature for a while, since so many viruses were included 
it.

"Advancement #7: Mobile device support (also termed man-in-the-mobile)"

We've got "man in the middle" and "meet in the middle."  Nobody is using "man 
in the mobile" except you.

"Advancement #8: Anti-removal (also termed persistence)
As security solutions struggle to detect and remove crimeware from compromised 
PCs, malware authors are updating their code to permit it to re-emerge on PCs 
even after its supposed removal."

I've got four words for you: "Robin Hood" and Friar Tuck."

The author "has served with the National Security Agency, the North Atlantic 
Treaty Organization, the U.S. Air Force, and two Federal think tanks."

With friends like this, who needs enemies?

======================  (quote inserted randomly by Pegasus Mailer)
rslade () vcn bc ca     slade () victoria tc ca     rslade () computercrime org
I, for one, don't see us as IT security soldiers.  We can't be,
since there is no higher political power to point us at the enemy
in anything like a reliable manner, especially since they don't
understand the kind of war we're in.    - J. Martin Wehlou, 20080916
victoria.tc.ca/techrev/rms.htm http://www.infosecbc.org/links
http://blogs.securiteam.com/index.php/archives/author/p1/
http://twitter.com/rslade
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