There were days when the stereotype of the teenage hacker was truer than it was false. But not any more: breaking computer security, propagating malware and sending spam are big business. The latest case - an Israeli corporate espionage spyware ring - demonstrates just that.
As our friends at The Register point out:
What they are not is spotty-faced hackers with a copy of NetStumbler, sitting the the car park trying to find a rogue access point on the corporate LAN. Here's the list of suspects: "Top executives of Israel's leading companies including Cellcom, Yes, Pelephone, Meir Motors, Tami-4, Ace Hardware, Volvo Israel and Amdocs" - they have either been arrested or have been placed under suspicion in the last few days for corporate espionage.
This list also includes several private detective companies run and operated by former IDF officers, reports [the Israeli news agency's] Joel Leyden - summarising: "If your computer starts to work slowly and you hear your hard drive grinding and working like mad but you see nothing happening on your monitor - you may most likely have an Israel, Syrian, Saudi, Japanese, Chinese or US "shark" spying on your hard drive. It could be the FBI, your mother or the store next door."
Erk.
