According to a new survey by Consumer Reports, American consumers lost more than $7 billion over the last two years to viruses, spyware and phishing schemes. The magazine’s “State of the Net” survey also projects that as many as a million consumers were victims of those billions of dollars in online scams.
PC World has an interesting story about the hot market for viruses, stolen data, cyber attack services, and a growing variety of tools to create malware. The most popular underground forums even offer their own product testing reports that make clear whether an attack program can do what its seller claims, as well as buyer ratings similar to those available at online auction sites.
The British House of Lords Science and Technology Committee has issued a report urging government action to protect individual Internet users against online crime. The Committee calls cyber crime a threat to the future of the internet itself and warns against a "wild west culture where the end use alone is responsible for ensuring they are protected from criminal attacks online."