This is the Safari online edition of the printed book.

“This book is the most current and comprehensive analysis of the state of Internet security threats right now. The review of current issues and predictions about problems years away are critical for truly understanding crimeware. Every concerned person should have a copy and use it for reference.”

—Garth Bruen, Project KnujOn Designer

There’s a new breed of online predators—serious criminals intent on stealing big bucks and top-secret information—and their weapons of choice are a dangerous array of tools called “crimeware.” With an ever-growing number of companies, organizations, and individuals turning to the Internet to get things done, there’s an urgent need to understand and prevent these online threats.

Crimeware: Understanding New Attacks and Defenses will help security professionals, technical managers, students, and researchers understand and prevent specific crimeware threats. This book guides you through the essential security principles, techniques, and countermeasures to keep you one step ahead of the criminals, regardless of evolving technology and tactics. Security experts Markus Jakobsson and Zulfikar Ramzan have brought together chapter contributors who are among the best and the brightest in the security industry. Together, they will help you understand how crimeware works, how to identify it, and how to prevent future attacks before your company’s valuable information falls into the wrong hands. In self-contained chapters that go into varying degrees of depth, the book provides a thorough overview of crimeware, including not only concepts prevalent in the wild, but also ideas that so far have only been seen inside the laboratory.

With this book, you will 

• Understand current and emerging security threats including rootkits, bot networks, spyware, adware, and click fraud

• Recognize the interaction between various crimeware threats

• Gain awareness of the social, political, and legal implications of these threats

• Learn valuable countermeasures to stop crimeware in its tracks, now and in the future

• Acquire insight into future security trends and threats, and create an effective defense plan

With contributions by Gary McGraw, Andrew Tanenbaum, Dave Cole, Oliver Friedrichs, Peter Ferrie, and others.

Amazon.com® Reader Reviews (Ranked by Helpfulness)

Average Amazon.com® Rating:  Based on 8 Ratings

Broad, deep, and technically accurate, yet tedious at times - 2009-04-26
Reviewer Rating:
Crimeware is a collection of chapters collectively written by 40-odd security researchers. Sometimes this approach is a formula for disaster, but here the end result is a solid book that covers a broad number of topics. Because each author or group of authors know their field well, they can delve fairly deeply when necessary, and their material is technically accurate. However, some of the chapters are boring and lifeless. This book blocked my reading queue for about 4 months, which is a sign I found the text unappealing. It took a flight from Amsterdam to convince me to finish it! Still, I agree with many of the other reviewers -- Crimeware is an impressive examination of malware, on a variety of fronts.

Chapter 8: Rootkits, by Prashant Pathak, was my favorite. I've read books on rootkits before, by Pathak's chapter presented the subject in a very understandable manner. His methodical and disciplined approach seemed very effective. He explained various approaches and terms, instead of assuming the reader knew what he was discussing already. I recommend reading chapter 8 before tackling other books on rootkits.

Chapter 1: Overview of Crimeware, by Aaron Emigh and Zulfikar Ramzan; Chapter 6: Crimeware in the Browser, by Dan Boneh, et al; and Chapter 7: Bot Networks, by James Hoagland, Zulfikar Ramzan, and Sourabh Satish addressed the core malware topics I would expect to appeal to the sorts of readers who frequent my blog. While several other chapters offered novel research, these three plus the rootkits chapter are probably most helpful to those defending networks.

A great book looking at both the current and future threats of malware. - 2008-05-14
Reviewer Rating:
First off, to be fair I should point out that I am a co-author of one of the chapters (Chapter 5), but I still read the remainder of the book like everyone else, and I don't receive any benefit from sales, so I think the review is fairly objective.

This is the first book to describe the mounting problem of crimeware in a manner that is both accessible to a general readership and helpful to the expert reader. Written by expert contributors in the field of security, it details how cyber crooks are launching attacks on businesses and society, and predicts the trends in Internet security. In contrast to most security books, this book covers not only technical aspects, but also social and legal aspects of security. The book has descriptions of the current and predicted threat pictures, and discussions of meaningful countermeasures, including possible educational campaigns to support other countermeasures. It is a book that is difficult to put down once you have started reading, at the same time as it is likely to remain a useful reference for quite a while.

As has been commented previously, each chapter is more or less self-contained, and so readers can skip to chapters of interest. Further, rather than just considering the technical problems and solutions of online crime, it considers the broader holistic problem of security and crime. I strongly recommend this book to those that want to understand the current and future online threats.

Comprehensive and thorough - Must Read - 2008-10-31
Reviewer Rating:
There was a time when viruses and worms were written primarily for the purposes of creating chaos and getting 15 minutes of fame in the malware underworld. Script-kiddies could crank out exploits that spread like wildfire and interrupted computer and network productivity, but with little impact or implication beyond the annoyance factor in most cases.
That time is gone. It has been gone for a while now. Professional criminals and crime syndicates eventually figured out that these same attacks and exploits, if properly crafted, could represent a windfall of ill-gotten cash. Rather than trying to have the greatest impact and notoriety, today's attacks seek to find a balance between compromising as many machines as possible while also staying under the radar and remaining undetected by users or security software.

The authors of Crimeware: Understanding New Attacks and Defenses have put together a comprehensive and thorough guide to current malware- which they call crimeware- and how to defend against it. Rather than go on about the scope of the book, I will just list the chapters and let you judge for yourself.

1.Overview of Crimeware
2.A taxonomy of Coding Errors
3.Crimeware and Peer-to-Peer Networks
4.Crimeware in Small Devices
5.Crimeware in Firmware
6.Crimeware in the Browser
7.Bot Networks
8.Rootkits
9.Virtual Worlds and Fraud
10.Cyberware and Politics
11.Online Advertising Fraud
12.Crimeware Business Models
13.The Educational Aspect of Security
14.Surreptitious Code and the Law
15.Crimeware and Trusted Computing
16.Technical Defense Techniques
17.The Future of Crimeware

This book is not just another compendium of malware and defensive countermeasures. This book provides that, but goes beyond that to educate the reader and provide tremendous insight about how and why crimeware works.

A must read if you have PII, PCI or IP - 2008-05-10
Reviewer Rating:
Five stars to Jakobsson & Ramzan for a most useful guide to understanding the underbelly of the internet. The strength exhibited by this book lies within the all-star lineup of contributors and the thorough dissection of the numerous forms of crimeware. Their book is a must read for anyone who has responsibility or an interest in protecting Personal Identifying Information (PII), Private Consumer Information (PCI) or Intellectual Property (IP).

As a self-described technological Neanderthal, I encountered only a few portions of the book which caused me to enter the world of "technological overload," anyone with a modicum of information technology understanding will have no problem cruising through the chapters and fully comprehending the various data points. The highpoint of each being the *countermeasures* presented at the end of each chapter.

Some items which I would like to highlight, as they resonated with me:
o Whether you are fully familiar or a nascent understanding of crimeware and its many manifestations, Chapter 1 alone provides a concise overview. This introduction gets your mind in swing, and puts you in the zone, if you have only time to read one chapter - this is it. You'll finish with a working knowledge and familiarity of crimeware.
o Crimeware's business model hit the sweet-spot. The explanation is clear. The monetization requirement of the perpetrators is accurate, and from my own perspective (i.e., that of one who invests heavily in the "why" side of these discussions), the content provides meaningful grist for future discussions.
o Education as a means to thwart crimeware makes imminent sense. Again the points advanced are spot-on, as the audience receiving *Security Training* must be exposed to the "why" before you try and project the "what" or the "do" upon them. I would add, that messaging, regardless of vehicle, be it cartoons, video, hoardings or print media, should be aligned to project the positive actions of a given scenario. The rationale being, individuals align with positive behaviors and outcomes and disassociate with a negative exemplar.
o The endnotes are in reality an extraordinary extensive bibliography on the topic of crimeware, which alone is worthy of review.
In sum, Jakobsson/Ramzan have it right - crimeware is here, and it is here to stay. Perhaps if we collectively work together we may be able to hold back those investing in the development of crimeware. This collaborative guide is a great stepping-stone to the next level of trust and engagement.

Christopher Burgess
Co-Author: Secrets Stolen, Fortunes Lost: Protecting Intellectual Property in the 21st Century (Syngress, March 2008).

Excellent book that gives the latest on Malware and how the bad guys profit from it - 2008-05-11
Reviewer Rating:
Crimeware
Understanding New Attacks and Defenses
Author : Markus Jakobsson, Zjlfikar Ramzan
Publisher: Symantec Press
Reviewed by: Michael Cooter

Pros: Covers wide variety of topics that would be of great interest the security researcher .
Cons: While covering Attacks in depth, I felt the defensive techniques very theoretical and not practical enough.

Chapter List: Chapter 1 "Overview of Crimeware", Chapter 2 "A taxonomy of Coding Errors", Chapter 3 "Crimeware and Peer-to-Peer Networks", Chapter 4 "Crimeware in Small Devices", Chapter 5 "Crimeware in Firmware", Chapter 6 "Crimeware in the Browser", Chapter 7 "Bot Networks", Chapter 8 "Rootkits", Chapter 9 "Virtual Worlds and Fraud", Chapter 10 "Cybeware and Politics", Chapter 11 "Online Advertising Fraud", Chapter 12 "Crimeware Business Models", Chapter 13 "The Educational Aspect of Security", Chapter 14 "Surreptitious Code and the Law" Chapter 15 "Crimeware and Trusted Computing", Chapter 15 "Crimeware and Trusted computing" Chapter 16 Technical Defense Techniques, Chapter 17 "The Futrue of Crimeware"

Book Review:
"Crimeware Understanding New Attacks and Defenses" is a new book from Symantec Press that covers the latest techniques in which malware(crimeware) is being used to infect, propogate and take over computer network, firmware, and systems.

The book is comprised 17 chapters that cover not only the latest in malware but also includes topics that are not covered any many other sources such as Transaction Generators, drive by pharming, and malware spread via wireless routers vs. the internet as an attack vector.

While each chapter is really a self contained entity independent of any other chapter, I read this book cover to cover in less than 3 days. I found the new topics (new to me anyways) such as Transaction Generators, how criminals profit from malware, and the threat of a Wifi Malware epidemic, kept me hooked as if I were reading a techno thriller.

The only reason why I would not give this excellent book a 5 star rating was I felt the chapter on new Defenses was lacking. While it outlined a new way of thinking in defense to counter these new threats, the same attention to detail of that the authors gave to the attack side of the coin, I felt was not given to defense. I found the defensive chapter to be far more theoretical than practical.




Summary:

"Crimeware Understanding New Attacks and Defenses" is an excellent read, and belongs on the bookshelf of any IT professional who has a responsibility or even an interest in latest in information security.

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