Br facts

Brazil is world 'hacking capital'
By Tom Gibb
BBC, Sao Paulo


Hacking itself is not a crime in Brazil
Brazil has become the global capital for computer hacking and internet fraud, according to experts meeting in the country's capital, Brasilia.
Some 500 experts from around the world are attending the first international conference to combat electronic crime.

Brazil is home to eight out of 10 of the world's hackers, according to federal police at the conference.

Within Brazil, the amount of money lost in internet financial fraud outstrips that lost through bank robberies.

Roughly two-thirds of the internet's child ****ography pages are also said to originate in the country.

These statistics are supported by security experts from other countries who say some 96,000 hacking attacks were launched from Brazil last year - six times more than any other country.

Intellectual challenge

Many of the hackers work in groups with names like Breaking Your Security or Virtual Hell.

The explosion in hacking is blamed, in part, on weak legislation.

Hacking itself is not a crime in Brazil so police have to prove fraud has taken place in order to prosecute.

Brazilian hackers often do not consider themselves criminals, saying they break into sites for the intellectual challenge rather than to steal.

Last year, websites in the US were the target of the huge majority of hacking attacks.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/3657170.stm



Another one
Hacker boys from Brazil

Brazil's sites are some of the most hacked in the world
By BBC Click Online's Simon Han**** < lol blocked his name hanco/ck its meant to be.
Brazil boasts some of the most active hackers in the world.

An army of schoolchildren is flexing its information technology muscles, bringing company sites to their knees.

Brazil's sites are some of the most hacked in the world. Last year, the number of hacked sites increased 10 times.

Like the graffiti artists of 20 years ago, they are looking to spray their names wherever they can. They may be causing headaches now, but the bright side in the long run for the country may be that they are learning while they are at it.

From hacker to security expert

Andre Fucs, now 23 years old, was once a hacker. He now advises one of Brazil's biggest banks on computer security.


Fucs: Defacement is a macho joke
"When you break a computer you have to understand how it works and you learn," he told BBC Click Online.

"I think now I can think like a hacker, since I was breaking a lot of computer networks in Brazil, I can guess how these guys are thinking."

Andre believes things have changed quite a bit since his day. He has little time for today's defacers.

"I think defacement is useless. Most of these guys don't know how to do it. They just care about their image.

"They're not learning, they're just repeating a procedure developed by someone else. I think this is a big problem. Defacement is a macho joke."

'Patriotic' hacking

Sometimes it can be funny though. Outraged Brazilian defacers rampaged through Canadian sites after the country banned Brazilian beef, for example.


Hackers defaced Canadian sites
So some attacks seem to have been thought out, but is this enough?

"I think if they like computer security then they can become experts, but they have to want to and I don't see this at all," said Andre.

"Some guys have some will to change, but will is not everything, you need to start doing."

These web vandals would do well to listen to Andre, because if they follow his lead they could be cashing in for years to come.

"I can do anything I want. I'm not rich, but I can spend my holidays in Europe, in Chile skiing," said Andre. "I don't have snow in Brazil and I can snowboard twice a year, it's nice."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/1723356.stm