Free Trade Viruses: part 1

We all have come in contact with those wonderful little bugs over the Internet. Whether it's the latest spam thread on myspace.com or a potent virus found in emails, these little fuckers have been getting PC users (and to a lesser extent Mac users) by the short and curlies ever since the Internet first became popular in the 1990s. Where do all of these come from though? Like most people I at first just thought it was a handful of people just trying to screw up things, but upon reading an article on it from zdnet.co.uk it turns out that many of the viruses and spam we receive and deal with on a regular basis come from a vast underground network not too dissimilar to the mafia.
It pretty much rounds out like this. Someone hires one or several people to write the code for these viruses. They negotiate payment then the coders in turn hire even more people to send out these viruses. As stated in the initial article

Security experts are increasingly pointing to the existence of a "black" or "shadow" cyber-economy, where malware services are sold online using the same kinds of development methods and guarantees given by legitimate software vendors.

So the Trojan you get in an email from someone on your contact list stating "this website/picture/game/video/whatever is so cool and LOLs" it's possible that they in turn got it from numerous people; networks, within networks.
In short even the world of malware isn't safe from free market capitalism. This I suppose goes along with the phrase "If a dollar is to be made, people will do it."
What interests me the most about this topic is just the sheer idea that even in something that seems so random as viruses and spam there is still such an organized crime network. Professionals are still unsure just how organized this "black cyber-economy" is but in one example used in the article they sure as hell know how to pack a punch. The UK is and has been continually hit by a piece of Malware named "storm." This is a malware "bot" that was created that sent emails saying "230 Dead as Storm Batters Europe." When people open this email they get the virus. An employee of the well known antivirus company McAfee had this to say about "Storm."

"Storm has been exceptionally successful...It's used for spam runs, and researchers attempting to locate Storm command and control servers have come under attack. The hardest part is finding the key to those channels. They're not always easy to detect and find. Some of the communications are encrypted, while some are difficult to detect from a network point of view. I hate to use the word evolution, but they're certainly learning from their successes and failures. If it weren't for Storm, bots would be in significant recession. Some days we're seeing 1,000 different variants a day"

Like some weird Frankenstein's Monster, Storm is still evolving and learning to this day. Every new version of it takes lessons from the previous versions and it's becoming harder and harder for anti-virus/malware professionals to reverse its damage.
The real question though is who is making the money from these programs besides the anti-malware professionals? Those who have been caught are primarily just small players who are trying to pick up some extra cash. No John Gottis of the cyber world have been found (yet), but the competition is still fierce. One programmer, after creating a "packer" which is a program used to bypass computer security, ended up calling it quits after he just could not get a break. One thing that must be realized is it's not just other programmers these coders are going against; bots such as "Storm" are becoming more and more prevalent in the malware underground. Just like in a lot of modern industry and factory positions, why pay multiple people to send out these viruses when you can just as easily only pay one person to create a single program that can do the job quickly and more proficiently.
The internet is as much of a jungle as any other industry is. Be it buying stocks on Wall St., writing for a paper, or just being a cook at a bar, times are moving fast and money is moving even faster. The human instinct of adaptability is audacious in all respects and those who don't move with the rest of the trend are going to get trampled. I'm not saying I condone the act of purposely making people's lives a living hell, but one thing I will say is in this unsteady economic climate, making people miserable is the only service that will never go out of style.

This is a topic I happen to have great interest in and I'm going to be writing about it much more in the future as soon as I can get more information on it. I hope to make this into a complete investigative report eventually including interviews with programmers and players in the cyber-economy. Tune in later this week for part two. As for now, as always, Cheers.

-Jonny Gonzo

citation and quotes taken from original article "Cracking open the cybercrime economy" by Tom Espiner http://resources.zdnet.co.uk/articles/features/0,1000002000,39291463-2,00.htm

Music Review: Star Fucking Hipsters "Until We're Dead"

I'll make this short because there's really not much to say come to think of it. The last year (or so?) Scott Sturgeon (Stza Crack) worked on a new project, Star Fucking Hipsters. Now, when I first heard of it I thought it was going to be Leftover Crack v.2 but I have to say they're pretty impressive. How I see it is take the best from both Choking Victim and Leftover Crack (with much more emphasis on Choking V), and add a female lead singer. On top of that add in one Miss Yula Beeri (of World/Inferno and Nanuchka fame) and that upon hearing you can tell Scott didn't write most of the songs and that's Star Fucking Hipsters. There's a couple songs I have some problems with but for every song that I'm not too fond of there's two others that make up for it. Personal favorites are "Two Cups of Tea", "Snitch to the Suture", and "Zombie Christ."

Track List

1. Until We're Dead
2. Two Cups of Tea
3. Immigrants and Hypocrites
4. Empty Lives
5. Snitch to the Suture
6. Only Sleep
7. 9/11 was (An Inside Joke)
8. The Path is Paved
9. Zombie Christ
10. This Wal-Mart Life
11. Broken
12. Death or Fight


It's worth a check out and a download if you're even remotely a fan of any of the "C-Squat" Bands. www.myspace.com/starfuckinghipsters

Fool Us Once...

As said in an Associated Press article, it turns out the very people who got into this economic mess are the ones that Washington is hoping to help get out of it.

The AP's review reveals one of the ironies of the bank bailout: The same executives who were at the controls as the banking system nearly collapsed are the ones the government is counting on to help save it.

Let me get this straight...the very guys who caused it, are being put back in charge to fix it. I can't even fathom what else to say about this. So I'll have the source say it for me while I drool on myself and my eyes roll in the back of my head.

Wells Fargo & Co., for example, once was among the top lenders of subprime mortgages, or loans to buyers with low credit scores. The company received $25 billion in bailout money and plans layoffs in the coming months. But longtime CEO Richard Kovacevich remains the company's chairman, and the board recently waived its mandatory retirement age for him. John Stumpf, the president since 2005, became chief executive in 2007.

I'm still clueless on what to say next. The very idea of keeping someone in charge who has fucked up so dramatically is like reelecting a president who got us into a war and within a couple years spent any and all surplus....oh wait...on second thought let's keep that example for another time. I'm a firm believer of learning from mistakes; this doesn't seem like it's a learning experience though, this is just downright ignorance. Alas, one can only repeat and mull this over to his or herself so many times before he or she loses any and all bowel control.

full news article at :
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090127/ap_on_bi_ge/meltdown_executives

Philadelphia voted #11 out of 22 "Best Cities for Riding Out a Recession"

As major Metro areas such as NYC, Chicago, LA, and San Francisco suffer who would've guessed Philly would actually be good for something? Business Week listed Philadelphia as #11 in their article/online slide show of "22 Best American Cities for Riding Out a Recession."

The city has plenty of large hospitals and educational institutions, including the University of Pennsylvania, Jefferson Medical School, and Temple University. It also has a large number of lawyers. Tourism could do fine in a downturn if Northeasterners decide to travel locally and foreigners continue to stream in to take advantage of the weak dollar. But Philadelphia has many stores and restaurants, which might get hit hard in a downturn.

Well hot damn! It turns out because of tourism, lack of big business and a more than surplus of hospitals, lawyers and schools, it's actually proven more than just a great place to grab some cheese steaks after getting into a drunken fist fight over a sports game. They said the restaurant business might suffer (which I've witnessed first hand at my own place of work) but still, "Killadelphia" has something to show for it besides high police brutality and gun violence levels. It's times like this that make me tear up with joy over a pint of Lager and a Flyers game. For the complete article check out http://images.businessweek.com/ss/08/10/1014_recession_cities/1.htm

Big Business not working? PSHAWW!

In business news, there's going to be a lot more room in the malls. I'm talking about major retailers and corporations that are closing stores and filling out bankruptcy papers. I was checking out some news online and I saw a wondrous little Forbes article about what major retailers are going under. In these uncertain economic times it's not a surprise to see businesses close, but when it comes to big upscale shops and boutiques? It fills my heart with a warm glow. A couple ones the list included are such clothing retailers as Eddie Bauer and Gap Inc. I guess upbeat pop songs in commercials just don't do it anymore. Other victims of America's "Oh hey we don't have any money" revolution are Circuit City (which is kind of a shame, now Ledgewood mall in Jersey only has one store worth seeing, the guitar shop) Sears-K-Mart, and *gasp* Starbucks. Now, the Latter isn't going anywhere, but they are saying they're closing another couple hundred stores. Big shame because now we have to walk one extra block for a cup of coffee. Timberland is also suffering, but again, it's just closing some stores. Applebees was also on the list and Mrs. Fields Cookies. Regrettably, giants Wal-Mart and McDonalds are still thriving because they're cheap but with any luck people will start cooking at home or going to small shops. Personally I am a strong believer in what this country needs isn't another bail out or tax-cut. What it needs is the reemergence of main st., USA and smaller independant businesses. Think about it, the richies have enough money as it is, smaller businesses owned by the middle and working classes are suffering though and in turn the economy is in pieces. I think it's a bit late to say "I told you so" to these big businesses, but hey, why the hell not. I TOLD YOU SOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!

Obama: Prophet of Perpetuity?

Call me a cynic, but I don't have faith in Obama at all, at least not until he proves me wrong. Already he has appointed primarily a lot of "Clintonites" and seems to be on the ball with big business. Change we need? So far doesn't seem like it. But only time will tell, as of this day (and in 4.5 hours as of this writing) he's going to be sworn in as figurehead #44. Now, I understand things can only get better...hopefully...everything is still up in the air. We'll see in 100 days if anything has been changed. Of course, here's my definition of change: universal health care, federal aid for an ailing working class, the abolition of the WTO and IMF, and an increase in jobs. It's a pretty tall order but hey, a guy can dream.