Gangs turn to viruses

A senior British police official has said gangs could start turning to virus writers in an attempt to continue financing various criminal actions.

London Metropolitan Police Commissioner Paul Stephenson told ITNews.com.au that bank robbery could be one of the activities targeted by gangs.

“Traditionally, when a gang loses a drugs consignment to law enforcement, they commit robberies to pay their debts and finance another shipment. But robbing a bank or cash van is risky. How much easier to extort the price of a drugs consignment from a cyber attack on a company,” he warned.

“At the moment, British criminals would probably have to buy ‘packages’ of bogus identities or virus kits from foreign criminal organisations. But for how long? There is the potential for gangsters to hire their own writers of software.”

As a result, Stephenson said the police cyber crime unit is just as important as the homicide team.