WASHINGTON, Dec. 10 (UPI) -- Criminal-to-criminal transactions are the fastest-growing type of illegal cyber-activities, creating a virtual cyber-crime service sector, say U.S. experts.
A senior Estonian official recently said for the first time that the cyberattacks earlier this year against his country's government and commercial Internet infrastructure were carried out using a network of computers infected with special hacker software that had been rented from a criminal syndicate.
Jaak Aaviksoo, the Estonian minister of defense, told a Washington audience last month that the botnet that attacked Estonia was "rented for that purpose and rented (from) clearly illegal groups that have hijacked a number of computers worldwide."
Earlier this year a so-called bot-herder -- a hacker who had created several networks of infected computers for use by cyber-criminals -- pled guilty to federal wire-tapping crimes in a precedent-setting prosecution.
But commentators say that law enforcement agencies worldwide are falling behind the criminal syndicates, who hawk their wares -- including botnets for rent and bundles of stolen credit card or login information -- using anonymous instant messaging, chat rooms and online cash accounts like e-gold and WebMoney.
One company indicted by U.S. prosecutors allegedly was responsible for more than $4 million worth of credit card fraud and trafficked in nearly 100,000 stolen credit card numbers.
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