To law enforcement officials, cybercrime is a new priority. Both the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the U.S. Secret Service, which has jurisdiction over financial crimes, have boosted manpower to combat computer-enabled robberies and have formed partnerships with foreign law-enforcement agencies.
Those efforts have been swamped by the explosion in e- commerce, said Chris Swecker, a former FBI assistant director who advises companies on cybersecurity. As millions of customers have shifted online, criminals have followed, their hacking tools and nimble criminal organizations racing ahead of old- school law enforcement models.
"Through cybercrime, transnational criminal organizations pose a significant threat to financial and trust systems," including banking, stock markets and credit-card services, according to a National Security Council report issued in July.
National Security Threat
Cybercrime has risen to the level of a national security threat, according to the report, citing a "critical shortage of investigators with the knowledge and expertise to analyze the ever increasing amounts of potential digital evidence."
The banking industry's reluctance to confront this problem head-on has allowed criminals to reinvest some of their booty to create better, more effective malicious software, known as malware, according to Woodhill.
Malware is what hurt Earl Goossen, business manager for Green Ford Sales, when he logged on to the company's payroll account at First Bank Kansas at 7:45 a.m. central standard time on Nov. 3, 2010. Just two days earlier he'd used his computer to arrange for the bank to send out the $63,000 payroll to employee accounts. Everything went smoothly at first. Goossen responded to a follow-up e-mail request from First Bank Kansas to okay the payroll, just as he did on the 1st and 15th of every month.
Malicious Software
Unbeknownst to Goossen, malicious software had infected the computer with a so-called worm, which had the ability to grab passwords, user names and credit-card data.
Some malware allows hackers thousands of miles away to take remote control of machines it infects, as if they were sitting at the keyboard. This malware is affordable and easy to obtain. A basic version sells for less than $5,000, Jackson said. Many models, licensed like commercial software from Microsoft Corp. and Adobe Systems Inc., even come with tech support, he said.