Cyberspace remains untamed

Hackers just keep getting more sophisticated, according to a new report from Symatec Corp. Some, dubbed "criminal middlemen," sell code for as much as US$ 1,000 per program, reports Globe and Mail.

The hackers keep middlemen aboard by enlisting them in contracts, much like legit software makers such as Microsoft and Oracle. But in doing so, they leave behind a trail of code that makes it easy for authorities to find them.
Among the report's findings:

• At 64 percent, the US tops the list as the leader of "underground economy servers," where theives buy and sell financial information.
• China topped the list when it came to computers infected with bots.
• The number of malicious code threats has ballooned in the past six months to 212,101, an increase of 185 percent over the previous six months.