User:Brian McNeil/UK Cyber Cecurity Challenge interview notes

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With security software companies reporting more new malware created during in 2009 than in all the preceding time; and, online shopping and banking being commonplace, the UK's Cyber Security Challenge seems a timely move to deal with increasingly sophisticated attacks on network infrastructure, people's computers, and the banking system.

The UK is one of a number of countries frequently targetted. Massive botnets send millions of spam emails per second, compromised websites and professional-looking advertising convince unsuspecting members of the public to hand over bank, credit card, and personal details over.

Last Friday, Wikinewsie Brian McNeil managed to catch up with Judy Baker, head of the newly set up UK Cyber Security Challenge, to find out a little more about what may seem like desperate measures to deal with the use of the Internet for criminal activity. Sitting in on the telephone interview was Allan Paller, from the US-based SANS Institute. Paller was instrumental in setting up the US-based equivalent challenge through a series of games.

A key theme throughout Wikinews' discussion with Baker and Paller was the resources at the disposal of cyber criminals. A – perhaps unrepresentative – sample of around 100 people Wikinewsie McNeil spoke to in the week following the use of the Zeus botnet for financial crime within the UK, the majority had experienced, or knew someone who had experienced, unauthorised credit card use.