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Malware Entrepreneurs Thrive in the Web 2.0 Marketplace

by Terrence O'Brien on May 30, 2008 at 09:29 AM

Malware Entrepreneurs Thrive in the Web 2.0 Marketplaceit's an open secret that one of the downsides to the the ubiquity of Web 2.0 sites and services is the ease with which the burgeoning malware (viruses, spyware, etc) market has been able to blossom. Hacking groups have used YouTube to advertise their services and products and have used social networking sites like MySpace and LiveJournal to find and stay in touch with clients.

Many are not just using the sites to advertise however. Some are using holes in those sites security measures as a way of watching those who watch them. Researchers recently found that some criminals were using a MySpace page loaded with malicious code to automatically subscribe visitors to their video channels instantly producing a record of ever person who visited their site.

Most of these nefarious groups and individuals are hiding in plain sight. The problem is that merely creating tools which allow you to infect PCs, steal data, or hijack a computer is not illegal, only using them to actually break the law. So these groups live in a legal gray area where they don't want to necessarily draw too much attention to themselves, but are usually safe from legal action. Law enforcement officials say they could charge a vendor of malware with aiding and abetting if their product was used illegally, but they would have to prove intent, which is always difficult. [Source: Yahoo! News]

Tags: breaking news, BreakingNews, malware, web 2.0, Web2.0, youtube

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