Internet Gangstas don't appreciate software piracy, either!

Crimeware salesmen, like most e-commerce types, take a dim view when their creations are knocked-off (pirated). To protect themselves, they warn their customers (Internet criminal types) that if their products are counterfeited, they can and will be reported to the anti-virus companies.

Specifically, the verbiage used as reported on the Symantec blog is, "the binary code of your bot will be immediately sent to antivirus companies."

The reason reporting reporting the binary code of a bot defeats the crimeware kit in question (Zeus) was mentioned in a previous post on this blog:

Known as the "Zeus kit," in honor of the Zeus Trojan, the kit is pretty resistant to computer security programs and has the ability to mask itself using a binary generator. The binary generator sends out a unique set of numbers every time it is used, making it hard for security programs to detect since they rely on spotting what is known as a "signature." Even if a security program recognizes one signature, the binary generator changes it the next time, and the security program will probably fail to recognize it.

Here are the details, as reported on the Symantec blog by Liam OMurchu:

Here is a perfect example. The screen shot below is taken from a typical underground software package. Shown in the screen shot are the terms and conditions of the sale—the “licensing agreement.” Yes, that’s right; some underground packages come with a licensing agreement. The document is written in Russian, but a translation is provided below.



2. The Client:
1. Does not have the right to distribute the product in any business or commercial purposes not connected with this sale.
2. May not disassemble / study the binary code of the bot builder.
3. Has no right to use the control panel as a means to control other bot nets or use it for any other purpose.
4. Does not have the right to deliberately send any portion of the product to anti-virus companies and other such institutions.
5. Commits to give the seller a fee for any update to the product that is not connected with errors in the work, as well as for adding additional functionality.

In cases of violations of the agreement and being detected, the client loses any technical support. Moreover, the binary code of your bot will be immediately sent to antivirus companies.

It should be noted that these crimeware kits, as I've written frequently, make it fairly easy for not very technical criminals to commit technical crimes. As noted in their licensing agreement, the criminals selling these kits in underground forums even provide technical support.

Interestingly enough, Liam noted:

Despite the clear licensing agreement and the associated warnings, this package still ended up being traded freely in underground forums shortly after it was released. It just goes to show you just can’t trust anyone in the underground these days.

Of course, in most instances, there is no honor among thieves.

Liam notes that this licensing agreement is for much talked about Zeus kit, which has "drive-by" capabilities. If you are unfamiliar with what "drive by" means on the Internet, it means that your computer only needs to visit a site to become infected.

Here is a previous post, I recently did about the "drive by" problem, which is making the Internet a more dangerous place all the time:

Nowadays, all you need to do is visit the wrong site to have your personal information stolen!

Liam's post on the Symantec blog, here.

DOJ announces strategy to go after organized crime in a borderless environment

I've often written about borderless crime being committed with a click of a mouse, as well as, the lines that law enforcement jurisdictions impose, which can make investigative and prosecution efforts, frustrating.

The Attorney General and the Justice Department are announcing a new strategy to go after the problem.

From the press release on fbi.gov:

Today, Attorney General Michael B. Mukasey announced a new strategy in the fight against international organized crime that will address this growing threat to U.S. security and stability. The Law Enforcement Strategy to Combat International Organized Crime (the strategy) was developed following an October 2007 International Organized Crime Threat Assessment (IOC Threat Assessment) and will address the demand for a strategic, targeted, and concerted U.S. response to combat the identified threats. This strategy builds on the broad foundation the Administration has developed in recent years to enhance information sharing, and to secure U.S. borders and financial systems from a variety of transnational threats.

In the press release, Attorney General Mukasey sums up the threat by saying:

The strategy specifically reacts to the globalization of legal and illegal business; advances in technology, particularly the Internet; and the evolution of symbiotic relationships between criminals, public officials, and business leaders that have combined to create a new, less restrictive environment within which international organized criminals can operate. Without the necessity of a physical presence, U.S. law enforcement must combat international organized criminals that target the relative wealth of the people and institutions in the United States while remaining outside the country.

Also stated in the verbiage of the press release is that there will be more coordination of information between federal law enforcement agencies. "This unprecedented coordination will include utilizing all available U.S. government programs and capabilities, including existing economic, consular, and other non-law enforcement means," according to Attorney General Mukasey.

"The Law Enforcement Strategy to Combat International Organized Crime (the strategy) was developed following an October 2007 International Organized Crime Threat Assessment (IOC Threat Assessment)," according to the press release.

The press release identifies and defines the following strategic threats:

International organized criminals have penetrated the energy market and other strategic sectors of the U.S. and world economy. As U.S. energy needs continue to grow, so too could the power of those who control energy resources.

International organized criminals provide logistical and other support to terrorists, foreign intelligence services, and foreign governments, all with interests acutely adverse to those of U.S. national security.

International organized criminals traffic in people and contraband goods, bringing people and products through U.S. borders to the detriment of border security, the U.S. economy, and the health and lives of those human beings exploited by human trafficking.

International organized criminals exploit the U.S. and international financial system to move illegal profits and funds, including sending billions of dollars in illicit funds through the U.S. financial system annually. To continue this practice, they seek to corrupt financial service providers globally.

International organized criminals use cyberspace to target U.S. victims and infrastructure, jeopardizing the security of personal information, the stability of business and government infrastructures, and the security and solvency of financial investment markets.

International organized criminals are manipulating securities exchanges and engaging in sophisticated fraud schemes that rob U.S. investors, consumers, and government agencies of billions of dollars.

International organized criminals have successfully corrupted public officials around the world, including in countries of vital strategic importance to the United States, and continue to seek ways to influence—legally or illegally—U.S. officials.

International organized criminals use violence and the threat of violence as a basis of power.

What alarmed me the most in this news release, especially with out of control oil prices, was that organized crime was involved in the energy sector. Randall Mikkelsen at Reuters must have been interested in this statement and questioned Alice Fisher, head of the DOJ criminal division. Fisher seemed downplay the statement by saying "I don't think that you can directly link the two." Fisher did go on to state that organized crime had a foothold in global financial markets?

To me, that's at least as scary as organized criminals being involved in the energy sector. What we do know is that both the financial and energy sectors seem to be causing the average citizen a considerable amount of pain and suffering, lately.

The reason for this response might be that investigative entities don't generally want to comment on the specifics of any ongoing investigations? There are good reasons for not doing so.

Interestingly enough, the Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, which is run by some Eastern European journalists has covered potential organized criminal involvement in the energy sector in Eastern Europe. On a story, which can be seen on the home page of the site, it states:

In between are the energy traders. They say they are the future of low-cost energy but that is a promise yet to be fulfilled. These politically connected and well-financed businessmen have reaped billions in sales, often at the expense of state companies. Investigators in a number of countries are trying to determine whether some of them made their millions in profits illegally or legally in systems that have few laws and not enough regulations.

Although the executives at Enron were never found to be involved with organized crime, the Enron debacle illustrates how a little dishonesty in the energy sector can create a lot of financial havoc for a lot of people!

Also alarming, is the statement that public officials around the world are being corrupted by these groups.

As I stated in the first paragraph, I've often written about some of the items now being identified as strategic threats. We live in a society, where identities are stolen in mass, counterfeiting is rampant and rumors of foreign governments hacking into military and industrial systems are surfaced, too frequently.

And so far as hacking, criminal organizations -- who seem to be run as efficiently as any successful corporation -- appear to have the ability to crack into whatever defenses the good guys put into place. There has been speculation that these groups can afford to recruit the best and the brightest in a lot of "disciplines" in addition to information technology, also.

These factors have also enabled a lot of other (even more dangerous) criminal activity to spread at what some consider, epidemic proportions.

Given all these trends, the only successful strategy is to go after the people behind it. Nothing else has seemed to work very well, at least so far!

The full press release can be seen, here.

Reuters story can be seen, here.

I would also like to thank Suad and Lazarus at Paper Weapons, Heike at The Dark Visitor (information on Chinese hacking) site and the journalists at the Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project for the links, which I seeded in this post to make a point.

The problem of unsafe products from China are just a symptom of the bigger problem!

Interesting picture about consumer protection, courtesy of Flickr.

In the past couple of months, we've seen some alarming stories about dangerous products coming from China.

Dirk Lammers of the Associated Press wrote:

Poisoned pet food. Seafood laced with potentially dangerous antibiotics. Toothpaste tainted with an ingredient in antifreeze. Tires missing a key safety component. U.S. shoppers may be forgiven if they are becoming leery of Chinese-made goods and are trying to fill their shopping carts with products free of ingredients from that country. The trouble is, that may be almost impossible.

The Lammers family shopped far and wide, and came to the conclusion that merchants sell all kinds of products from China. Even more alarming, even if the label didn't say "made in China," it likely has a component (ingredient) that was.

The reason for this is simple, companies make billions off the cheap labor found in China and other less developed countries lacking the same level of consumer protection, we think (my opinion) we have.

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, which keeps tally of labor costs abroad, doesn't seem to have any data on China, or India for that matter. I mention India because, we seem to be in the market for a lot of their labor, recently.

The closest I could find was Sri Lanka, which in 2005 (most recent year available) has a labor compensation rate of 52 cents an hour.

I noticed a lot of countries left out. For instance, the region to the South of the United States, only has data for Mexico and Brazil. Mexico, which has a better economy than most of the area, has a labor cost of $1.57 an hour.

Maybe this is one of the major reasons our border to the South isn't very secure. Minimum wage, or even welfare benefits must seem like a king's ransom to some of these people.

Going back to China, I was able to find an estimate of labor costs in China by using Google. Judith Banner wrote in the Monthly Labor News Review:

Employees in China’s city manufacturing enterprises received a total compensation of $0.95 per hour, while their non-city counterparts, about whom such estimates had not previously been generally available, averaged less than half that: $0.41 per hour. Altogether, with a large majority of manufacturing employees working outside the cities, the average hourly manufacturing compensation estimated for China in 2002 was $0.57, about 3 percent of the average hourly compensation of manufacturing production workers in the United States and of many developed countries of the world.

A little higher than the government figure for Sri Lanka, but not much. Of course, I can think of a lot of countries, we outsource the cost of labor to, not included on the government list.

It makes sense -- that since a lot of these countries have a much lower standard of living, as well as, not very many consumer protection laws -- unsafe products have the capability to spread, worldwide.

In fact, with counterfeiting (another worldwide problem) thrown in, who knows what might show up in the supply chain? For example, it was recently disclosed that counterfeit drugs from China were likely being dispensed from pharmacies in the United States.

Chris Hansen, Dateline, did a pretty revealing story about this, here. The FDA did announce new rules, shortly after this, but I'm not sure this makes us very safe. All sorts of illegal drugs, make it past customs, daily.

I'm not sure if blaming China is the solution. After all, we aren't only outsourcing labor costs over there. Many of the other countries we outsource labor to, don't protect their people very well, and could care less about, consumer protection, also.

In fact, in many of these countries, people have a hard enough time keeping food on table!

Perhaps, we should take a closer look at ourselves? There are corporations here in the West, making a lot of money by stocking these products on our shelves. And at less than 60 cents an hour in labor costs, it must be extremely profitable for them.

The worker in China, or Sri Lanka isn't living very well off less than 60 cents an hour.

Perhaps, if certain companies had to start paying the true costs of padding their bottom lines with cheap labor, it wouldn't be as profitable.

I was amazed that despite all the special interests, obviously behind the recent immigration bill, that it was promptly defeated by the voice of the public. Many of us believe this bill, was at least in part, a ploy to drive down the cost of labor.

I'm not saying that all the politicians had ulterior motives, or that all corporations lack ethics, but it did reveal that the voter (individual person) has a choice, and more importantly, a voice!

It might be wise for politicians and corporations to get more on board with their voters, and customers.

If you are interested in learning more about this, I recommend Lou Dobbs, who has become extremely outspoken about a "war against the middle class." His site can be viewed, here.

Here are some references used for this post.

Article by Judith Bannister (Monthly Labor News Review), here.

Article by Dirk Lammers (AP), courtesy of the Washington Post, here.

Counterfeiting merchandise is enabled by outsourcing labor (my opinion). I've written a lot about this, here.

Previous posts about China and other dangerous activities coming from there, including espionage and hacking, can be viewed, here.

Counterfeit (knockoff) Colgate Toothpaste from South Africa is Toxic

When the FDA first reported toxic substances in off-brand toothpaste coming from China, it was bad enough. Now counterfeit Colgate toothpaste with the same toxic substance (DEG) is being imported from South Africa.

Some of this counterfeit Colgate toxic toothpaste has been found in "dollar type" stores in the United States.

Reuters is reporting:

Colgate-Palmolive Co. on Thursday said counterfeit "Colgate" toothpaste that maycontain a toxic chemical had been found in discount stores in four U.S. states.

"There are indications that this product does not contain fluoride and may containdiethylene glycol," the company said in a statement.

Colgate-Palmolive said it does not use, nor has ever used, diethylene glycol as an ingredient in its toothpaste anywhere in the world. The chemical, known as DEG and sometimes illegally used as an inexpensive sweetener and thickening agent, is commonly found in solvents and antifreeze.

The four states, where this has been found are:

New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Maryland. It can be recognized because it is labeled as being manufactured in South Africa, and the company does not import toothpaste to the United States from South Africa.

Reuters story, here.

The FDA issued a press release about this issue, here.

Counterfeit merchandise is a $600 billion a year problem. Besides, financial impact, the trade can threaten our personal safety, also!

The INTERNATIONAL ANTICOUNTERFEITING COALITION website is a great resource to learn about the issue of counterfeiting. They sum up the problem on their site when they state:

It is estimated that counterfeiting is a $600 billion a year problem. In fact, it's a problem that has grown over 10,000 percent in the past two decades, in part fueled by CONSUMER DEMAND.

The real truth is people who purchase counterfeit merchandise risk funding nefarious activities, contributing to unemployment, creating budget deficits and compromising the future of this country in the global economy.

The real truth is counterfeiters are hardened criminals, exploiting consumers, businesses both large and small, inventors and artists and children laboring in sweatshops in Third World countries.

Here is the post, I did about the Chinese toothpaste that is toxic:

The new red menace, global commerce from China

How to Spot a Counterfeit on eBay

Steve Swoda (founder of buySAFE) offers the following tips on how to avoid buying counterfeit merchandise (knockoffs) on eBay.

These tips were published in the Miami Herald a couple of weeks ago:

• Don't buy based on price alone. We all know that if the price is too good to be true, it probably is. Not all knockoffs are cheap, however. High prices can add a sense of legitimacy, and many knockoff sellers know this. Just because the price is high doesn't mean it's authentic.
  
• Pictures aren't always worth a thousand words. If a seller has only a few pictures and won't share more, you know you're dealing with someone illegitimate. Anyone selling high-value goods -- used or new -- understands the importance of authenticity. If the merchant is selling something genuine, he'll have nothing to hide.
  
• Read the fine print. Some ''e-tailers'' or auction sellers will lure you in with words that you're likely to use, such as ''Chanel'' or ''Gucci.'' Many sites also resort to overkill with words such as 'authentic,'' or 'genuine'' to describe items. It's only by reading carefully through the descriptions that you will see comments such as ''inspired by . . .'' to let you know that the merchandise isn't an exact copy. This sort of wording affords the seller immunity from trademark infringement.
  
• Return or get burned. Make sure the seller offers a return policy, or ensure that he uses a buyer-protection program.
  
• The extras. Designers love to provide value-added extras, such as boxes, identity cards and storage bags. The counterfeiters are always one step ahead, so don't let down your guard. Recent reports indicate that counterfeiters are even buying fake receipts to prove authenticity.
  
• At the end of the day, it's caveat emptor. If you suspect that the merchandise isn't genuine, don't buy it.

Link, here.

Of course, fake receipts are nothing new - shoplifters have used them for years to refund stolen merchandise. A Google search will show you that this "activity" is alive and well on the Internet, here.

Someone should go after the companies selling the means to do this!

Steve also does a blog, "Steve Woda's Blog: buySAFE, eCommerce, Trust & Safety" and was recently appointed to the "Commonwealth of Virginia's Joint Commission on Technology & Science Cybercrimes Advisory Committee."

Here is a previous post, I did on how to safely navigate auction sites:

25 Ways to Avoid Auction Fraud From a Seller's Perspective

I did a post on counterfeit goods (knockoffs), it mentions a book by Tim Phillips on the subject (Knockoff), which is a great reference on this subject:

Counterfeit Goods, A Borderless Problem