It’s official; the hackers are getting better.

Not only are they doing it more often, but they are getting more efficient at doing it.

Hacking is no longer a pastime of the bored, adolescent youth in their bedroom, playing at seeing who can crack the code first. It’s big business and a raft of reports from the big security firms show that the hackers are operating with an alarming degree of planning, targeting and prior research.

The reports, including one from security firm Verizon, showed that cyber crime reached its highest level in 2008 and amounted to more than the total number of attacks over the previous four years. They went on to say that nine out of ten attacks against businesses were very well organised and some demonstrated a new level of sophistication from the cyber criminals.

And it was no surprise that some 93% of attacks were aimed at companies in the financial services sector.

Another report from security firm Symantec showed that stolen credit card details were swopping hands at a paltry four pence each, whereas the price to obtain a full person’s identity was a mere 50p. And many might be surprised to learn that there were advertisements posted on the web asking for people’s personal details. These ads grew in number by 32% in 2008, confirming that there is indeed a growing and healthy black market in personal identity fraud.

The reports also made much of the increase in spam traffic in 2008, up an eye-watering 192%, despite attempts by many companies to rid the world of this pernicious traffic. In 2008, there were nearly 350 billion unwanted messages, up from around 120 billion in 2007. And spam accounts for 80% of all email messages.

This is no surprise for anyone who sits there and sees the constant flow of spam emails that enter their inbox, advertising everything from a night with a Russian belly dancer (male, or female), to a box of pills that promises a new experience for every man. And they are child’s play when you consider the amount that pretend to be from a person’s bank asking them to reveal all their personal information, and others who play the old con trick that you’ve been left a ten million cheque, and all that’s needed to get your hands on it is a two hundred pound payment to pay for the administration costs.

The sad thing is, that if people didn’t respond to spam email, over 90% of it would dry-up as a waste of time. Unfortunately, there are still millions who fall for the same tricks everytime, making most email users very paranoid about what they are receiving.

Another security company, this one McAfee, had another quite successful spin on the spam email debacle. They calculated that the electricity used to create and send all those unwanted emails, was responsible for some 33 billion kilowatt hours of electricity. This is the same amount as it would take to run 2.4 million homes every year.

So, not only are the cyber criminals trying to steal our money, they are also killing the plant at the same time. Not a pleasant section of society at all.

Guest Article by Neil Camp