the biggest and most profitable criminals are not breaking into banks, stealing passwords, or stuff like that. they rather just abuse the features that already exist on sites, such as posting thousands of spam pill or porn links to Facebook or twitter using thousands of accounts or using paid shills on amazon,. very repetitious but it scales well and profitable and very hard to stop because it is not exploiting or hacking anything. You cannot really patch features in the same way you can patch bugs.
Career Choice Tip: Cybercrime Is Mostly Boring
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Re: Career Choice Tip: Cybercrime Is Mostly Boring
#12Re: Career Choice Tip: Cybercrime Is Mostly Boring
#13Re: Career Choice Tip: Cybercrime Is Mostly Boring
#14Isn’t the vast majority of “cyber crime” just normal white collar crime (eg fraud) done over the internet? Do people really think it’s exciting?
The way the media presents “cybercrime” makes it exciting. According to them, “hackers” are able to crack into any system and do whatever they want. Banks, ATMs, power grids, etc.
The reality of course is much more mundane and the majority of cybercrime is lots of grunt work and a major dose of luck, there is no “silver bullet” skill or hack that will allow you to breach into any system and do anything, it all depends on how lucky you get with unpatched hosts or users being stupid. For every high-profile hack being reported there are hundreds of thousands more “hackers“ banging their heads against the wall not being able to make any progress beyond basic spamming.
Re: Career Choice Tip: Cybercrime Is Mostly Boring
#15Re: Career Choice Tip: Cybercrime Is Mostly Boring
#16I cannot find the original paper anywhere, if anyone finds it please post a link here. Thank you!
Keep reading; the link is there.
Re: Career Choice Tip: Cybercrime Is Mostly Boring
#17Isn’t the vast majority of “cyber crime” just normal white collar crime (eg fraud) done over the internet? Do people really think it’s exciting?
People in general think that crime in general is exciting. It’s just that cybercrime, in particular, is probably less thrilling than robbing banks in the same way that internet piracy is probably less thrilling than violently boarding and pillaging merchant ships on the high seas.
Re: Career Choice Tip: Cybercrime Is Mostly Boring
#18All of the "cybercrime" stock photos now just look like regular white-hats working in a post-COVID environment :)
I've noticed it before but never thought too deeply about it. Where did this 'stereotypical hacker' image stem from anyway? Computer 'nerds' are often cast with pressed button-up shirts, pocket protectors, and thick glasses. But if they are a 'bad nerd', they suddenly don a mysterious hoodie that covers their face as they work in a cave-like room like some kind of new-age techno-troglodyte?
Re: Career Choice Tip: Cybercrime Is Mostly Boring
#19All of the "cybercrime" stock photos now just look like regular white-hats working in a post-COVID environment :)
It’s an artistic choice because for most victims the cybercriminals are faceless, anonymous strangers who set out to con them.
Re: Career Choice Tip: Cybercrime Is Mostly Boring
#20It's not, if you on the other side.
On the defending side? I hear it's pretty boring there, too.