Cyber Crooks Outpacing Bank Robbers

Threat landscapes are always evolving based on technology and opportunity cost. Why rob banks? Because that's where the money is.

Brian Krebs, in his Krebs on Security blog, details how the loot obtained from banks by cyber attacks is rapidly outpacing the losses caused by physically sticking up a bank branch.

In fact, real-life bank robbers stole a total of just over $30 million in the first three quarters of 2009, just $5 million more than cyber crooks did in the third quarter of last year alone.

Krebs makes an interesting observation:

I can’t help but notice one other important distinction between these two types of bank crimes: The federal government sure publishes a lot more information about physical bank robberies that it makes available about online stick-ups. 

By the way, Willie Sutton never said that people rob banks because that's where the easy money is.