Marijuana. Cocaine. Heroin.
Assault rifles and illegal weapons.
Crime syndicates sitting around a smoky table in a dark room.
Do these Hollywood images of the black market fit the new Internet
underground? A look at a large bust led by the Secret Service, called
“Operation Firewall,” publicly revealed some of the first details of the
online black market and the people behind it. On October 26, 2004, 28
key members and ringleaders of the ShadowCrew, an online community of
cybercriminals, were arrested for facilitating an underground economy
where identity theft and exchange of stolen goods flourished.
The founders of the group included a part-time student in Scottsdale,
Arizona and a former mortgage broker from Linwood, New Jersey. The group
seamlessly crossed international boundaries as well. The ShadowCrew
boasted more than 4,000 members worldwide who launched millions of
phishing messages, hacked company networks, and then bought and sold the
stolen goods in their own online auction, complete with confidence
ratings and reviews.
What does the Internet black market look like today after the high
profile busts of the ShadowCrew and other cybercriminals in Operation
Firewall? The online underworld is constantly shifting. Symantec
performed a brief investigation of several online fraud communities to
answer this and other questions raised by this quickly evolving breed of
cybercriminal.
Read on! http://www.symantec.com/norton/cyber...lackmarket.jsp


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