Online gangs

It probably sounds like something out of a 1980s vintage techno-thriller, like Bruce Sterling’s Islands in the Net, but it is disturbingly becoming a reality -- there are actual “gangs” of angry, or just plain ignorant, kids who engage in digital vandalism as part of a misdirected urge to enhance group identity and personal pride in a fractious, underground community. Such groups may target each other or, more often, some third party whose troubles at the hands of such a gang of vandals will be easily noticed and identified.


With dramatic names like “Team Holocaust” and “Phalcon SKISMs,“ such cybergangs may occasionally claim a higher purpose (like YAM), but they may also have no pretensions of purpose other than claiming a strong group identity. Like being a Denver Broncos fan, except they mark their territory with digital vandalism instead of by painting their torsos orange and waving giant foam fingers in the air.


The hacker instinctMoney money moneyMost writers of malicious code in the wild these days seem to fall into this category; people who are in it for the filthy lucre. Viruses and worms often carry payloads that open up avenues of intrusion into a system, providing a means for either security crackers or their automated tools to slip past the system’s defenses. Such automated tools can harvest authentication information and other sensitive data (such as for reasons of identity fraud).