Expert: might be big year for hackers

SAN FRANCISCO, Oct. 28 (UPI) -- The chief scientist of a top security company believes 2004 could be a big year for hacking, CNET reported Thursday.

Internet Security Systems' Robert Graham says many hackers are moving into the pro ranks, which carries ominous implications for corporate security. Hackers once were happy with the thrill or the peer respect that came with breaking into other systems.

But Graham says hacker attacks and the motives behind them are more coordinated now, and many of the intruders are driven to gain financially from their exploits.

"This year, things are changing, and you can see it from the FBI's activities in the U.S. this year," said Graham "In one arrest by the FBI, the subject was a spammer who had thousands of machines under his control used to forward spam."

Graham also says many hackers are writing their own exploits instead of simply downloading them from Web sites and running them blindly.

Even though teams of virus-writers compete to update their viruses to defeat the latest antivirus signatures, Graham says viruses are no more sophisticated than they were in the past.

"The reality is that hackers that write viruses really aren't all that smart," says Graham. "They focus more on whatever defenses they see. They try to do one extra step. And so we rarely see a huge advance in hacking techniques."