September 10, 2009, 2:08 PM — Ever wondered how much your online identity is worth to a cybercriminal? A new tool from Symantec Corp. will perform the calculation for you.
The Norton Online Risk Calculator, unveiled within a microsite to coincide with the launch of Norton 2010, calculates your net worth on the black market by asking a few questions about your personal Internet use.
It takes a few minutes to answer the questions, after which you get three results: how much your online assets are worth, how much your online identity would sell for on the black market, and your risk of becoming a victim of identity theft.
The main point isn't to promote software or instill fear, but to spread awareness on cybercrime, said Marian Merritt, Internet security advocate for Symantec.
IT pros can use the consumer-oriented tool to educate employees in their office, as well as advocate Internet security to their family and friends. "IT is in that unique position of bridging both worlds," said Merritt.
It's unlikely the average consumer would read an Internet Security Threat Report, she added, but a simply illustrated example might get the same point across. "It's shocking how little value criminals place on your credit card," she said.
IT pros themselves might also benefit from a refresher on cybercrime. "Sometimes those who think they know the most can be even more at risk than others who admit they don't know much and therefore are very cautious," said Merritt.
Even those who consider themselves experts in IT tend to take shortcuts when it comes to online security because they think they aren't at risk, their information isn't really that valuable or they don't realize how much work it takes to recover a stolen identity, she explained.
IT pros might be familiar with concepts of the underground criminal economy and may even know a self-proclaimed hacker or two, but they may not realize the extent to which cybercrime has grown over the past several years, she said.
Cybercrime is now larger than the international drug trade, Merritt pointed out. Nearly 10 million people have reported identity theft in the U.S. over the last 12 months and one in four households have already been victimized, she said.
Not only is the rate of growth surprising, but how easy it is for criminals with no technical skills to convert themselves into cybercriminal businesses overnight, she said. Build-your-own botnet kits and spam engine systems trade on the black market for about $500, Merritt pointed out.
Cybercrime is well reported in the IT space, but the message doesn't often reach the general public, according to Merritt. "You turn on the news and they are talking about capturing drug dealers going across the border, but they rarely show a hacker in handcuffs," she said.
Michael Calce, who did make popular news headlines back in 2000 for a series of DDoS attacks that brought down major Web sites including Yahoo, eBay and Amazon, is one exception. His 56-charge conviction gained further notoriety due to the fact that he was only 15 years old at the time.
The former hacker is now making an effort to rebuild his reputation as a "white hat" and spreading the message on cybercrime and Internet security. The Internet is broken, threats are exploding and IT community needs to join forces to fix it, warned Calce at the IT360 conference last April.
In a post-conference interview, Calce summed up his main message for those who were unable to attend the event. "We're trying to get a message across that we need to do something about this. Government agencies need to step in, us -- the white hat community -- need to step up our game because this is a very serious issue that is starting to explode," he said.
One of the main problems, according to Calce, is that the Internet was never intended to become a commercial tool. "We have to rebuild certain protocols and basically get a new concept of how the Internet should be with computer security in mind. There's a serious lack of fundamental securities when it comes to the Internet," he said.
Calce's message also addressed consumers. Individual Internet users are increasingly becoming targets, he pointed out. "It's people putting their lives online that is starting to make the difference ... when you put that into perspective, that everybody's life is now online, you can see that they're becoming targets, whereas ten years ago this wasn't really the case," he said.
