Burgeoning botnets!

You've heard of the big-news breaches: Target, Home Depot, JPMorgan Chase, Michaels. Large and small organizations allow porous online systems to jeopardize their customers and diminish profits. Find out how cybercriminals use infectious malware to infiltrate web browsers and steal identities and personally identifiable information.

The author's views aren't necessarily those of the ACFE, its Board of Regents or employees. — ed.

Botnets abound! Those crafty high-tech e-robots that cybercriminals use to silently infiltrate personal computers and other devices are increasing worldwide. Fraudsters use botnets to distribute malicious software — malware — to steal personally identifiable information (PII) and identities and then link computers to form networks to spread viruses, attack computers and servers, and commit other kinds of crime.

In January of last year, Aleksandr Andreevich Panin pleaded guilty in an Atlanta federal courtroom to a conspiracy charge as the primary developer and distributor of the SpyEye malware, which he created to steal from financial institutions. (See Botnet Bust, FBI, Jan. 28, 2014.)