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Computers in the US have been the staging point for a dramatic increase in criminal attacks against PCs in Britain.
Scotland Yard and the FBI have been investigating the infection of at least 2,300 computers in Britain by a virus that deposits a malicious payload on the machine.
That malware collected passwords and any financial and personal data it could, according to a This is Money report.
The article cited one security expert who noted the problem has been building for several months:
Graham Cluley of anti-virus firm Sophos said the attacks had been increasing since July. "They work by using a computer virus spread via email to create an electronic back door on to a person's computer.
"The situation has now got so bad, with computers being attacked around 50 times an hour if left online with no antivirus software, that the police have decided to act."
About 2,300 computers have been identified as targets in the attack.
The figure could go much higher, as a source cited in the report anticipated tens of thousands of machines could have been affected by the attacks.
At this point, at least 83,000 files have been exposed by the attack.
ZDNet reported a computer seized in the United States had personal information from those 2,300 computer in Britain on it. A police detective in Britain said it was "too early" to determine how the computers were compromised.
Law enforcement efforts to contact people via email whose data appeared in the seized computer have not been successful:
"We're appealing for anyone who's had an e-mail from the Met officers who work in the Computer Crime Unit to get in touch. There's a security measure that people have to go through when they ring, but people are ignoring the e-mails because they think they're a hoax," a Metropolitan Police representative said.
People who responded to a British government study called Get Safe Online feared Internet crime more than burglary, the BBC reported.
The BBC also set up a honeypot computer, one that is left open to attack to observe how it might be compromised, and found attacks happening as frequently as every 15 minutes.
About
the Author:
David Utter is a business and technology writer with WebProNews.
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