Global economic recession as a way to scam people

The McAfee Virtual Criminology Report, an annual global report on organized crime and the Internet released Tuesday, states cybercriminals are using the global economic recession in malware attacks and as a tool for distracting governments from tracking and investigating their growth. 

David Marcus, security director at McAfee Avert Labs stated that the amount of malware has increased by 345%, and make 3,500 new threats per day. The amount is forecasted to make 1.4 million, while they had made only 150,000 in 2007. 

These malware are phishing and spam campaigns designed for offering desperate individuals searching for jobs online to become international sales representatives or shipping managers. The most difficult part is that those websites are professionally coded and have a professional-looking image. 

Another way the threat is being caused is asking users to place malicious code on their websites in exchange for cash. However, 95% of them is password stealing Trojans, which gather valuable personal information and sell it.

Moreover, cyber criminals are replacing content on trusted websites with their own content, which results in sending personal information to criminals rather than retailers. 

McAfee's report states that a key problem in increased economic recession-related cybercrime is the lack of laws protecting Internet-users from attacks. Therefore, governments need to recruit police officers and investigators with IT skills, those who are currently being poached for private companies, due to the absence of a well-defined career path for fighting cybercrime.