Drug gangs force techies into cyber-crime

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It has emerged that drug dealers in Mexico have been kidnapping computer programmers to force them to hack into bank systems. Experts say the IT experts are also being used for credit card fraud scams.

­Dmitry Bestuzhev, a Latin American specialist with the Russian global anti-virus firm Kaspersky Lab, says it is a type of crime which could spread.“In many cases cyber-crime is not punished at all, despite all the efforts,” he told RT.According to the specialist, the money this kind of criminal activity generates is comparable to that coming from the drugs themselves.“So, it’s another source of income for drug dealers,” he said.“Kidnapped [programmers] have to keep the money stolen from online banking, from credit cards and then pass it to drug dealers,” Bestuzhev explained.He adds that attacks on the world’s largest banks in the US, Europe or Russia take place on a daily basis.“Despite all the security efforts, it’s quite difficult to ensure that the user is protected [enough], because the security on the user’s side depends on the user,” Bestuzhev continued. “I strongly believe that if drug dealers see [profit] in abusing kidnapped cyber-criminals, they will keep following the same line.”