What's your value in the cyber mafia-run chor bazaar? $0.25 for your official name, $2 for cell number, $150 to $500 for credit card number and $50 to $400 for bank customer ID and PIN. You could be worth $1,000 on an average. When it comes to dealing in corporate information, your value could run into thousands of dollars.
If fun and fame were the sole aim of cyber hijackers till sometime ago, making fast buck is the key motive of today's smart cyber crackers. "These nerds can outsmart cracker king Kevin David Mitnick. The intelligence and tech savvyness attached to the profession makes it highly proliferate in terms of value and volume,'' said a leading cyber expert.
How does one fall prey to the cyber mafia? The case of Rajeev Vasudeva, a Chandigarh bank executive, says it all. He only knows that, for the first time, he logged on to a social networking site, a couple of months ago.
"Soon, I started receiving mails from unknown sources asking about my health, my wife's transfer and our home loan details. I thought someone who knows us well was playing a prank, until a tech-savvy friend realised my computer was hijacked and turned into a BOT (a hijacked computer) — a captive.''
If fun and fame were the sole aim of cyber hijackers till sometime ago, making fast buck is the key motive of today's smart cyber crackers. "These nerds can outsmart cracker king Kevin David Mitnick. The intelligence and tech savvyness attached to the profession makes it highly proliferate in terms of value and volume,'' said a leading cyber expert.
How does one fall prey to the cyber mafia? The case of Rajeev Vasudeva, a Chandigarh bank executive, says it all. He only knows that, for the first time, he logged on to a social networking site, a couple of months ago.
"Soon, I started receiving mails from unknown sources asking about my health, my wife's transfer and our home loan details. I thought someone who knows us well was playing a prank, until a tech-savvy friend realised my computer was hijacked and turned into a BOT (a hijacked computer) — a captive.''
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In Vasudeva's case, when he logged on, a malware/spyware was downloaded onto his system which held his computer a captive and started sending the entire data to an outsider, exposing his passwords.
Over 10,000 computers are converted into BOTs a day and are linked into large networks of such computers, called BOT-nets. Globally, several thousands of BOT-nets exist, the largest so far being a network of 150,000 BOTs whose sever was detected in Holland.
On an average, around 400 BOTs are created a day in India, says a recent study. The country already has over 40 command-and-control servers having 38,465 distinct BOTs. Among the cities, Mumbai reported a share of 33%, followed by Delhi at 25%, Chennai 17% and Bangalore 13%.
Over 10,000 computers are converted into BOTs a day and are linked into large networks of such computers, called BOT-nets. Globally, several thousands of BOT-nets exist, the largest so far being a network of 150,000 BOTs whose sever was detected in Holland.
On an average, around 400 BOTs are created a day in India, says a recent study. The country already has over 40 command-and-control servers having 38,465 distinct BOTs. Among the cities, Mumbai reported a share of 33%, followed by Delhi at 25%, Chennai 17% and Bangalore 13%.
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