Teen hackers see cybercrime as ‘easy money’

One in three British teenagers would consider cybercrime such as hacking or spying on people online to make money, according to a survey.

The Trend Micro survey polled 1,000 teens and parents around the UK, and also found that four out of ten teens had hacked into an account to read emails, taken over a social network profile or even looked at someone else's bank account details.

Trend Micro said a big reason for this was the lack of ‘e-morals’ and ‘netiquette’ as kids spent more time online and looked for ways to make fast cash.

The company’s security expert Rik Ferguson told IT PRO that it was also because expensive crimeware applications used by hardened criminals were becoming available for free over the last six or seven months.

He said: “The price barrier for entry into cybercrime has been removed.”

Ferguson said that previously you would have had to purchase tools, but that you could get hold of an applications like Zeus, Sploit and Fiesta for free.

He said the kits were powerful crimeware applications available just by searching.

The expert also said that we now had a generation that grew up with the internet as part of their daily lives from the beginning, which wasn’t the case before.

He said: “People are more internet savvy and aware of the possibilities offered by it. A lot of people see it as relatively high reward for relatively low risk.

“It seems a lot less risky than walking into a bank with a gun and having to possibly kill people,” he added.

Ferguson said education and parental responsibility was key to stopping kids committing online crime.

He said children needed to receive the message that cybercrime was just as serious as "real world" crime, whether that was from parents or in school education.

Ferguson continued: “It’s about being taught that stealing is wrong, and that even if you did it online it was still theft."

“Even if you don’t see a victim, there is a victim,” he added.

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