'reascii117ters' -

WASHINGTON (Reascii117ters) - The people who broascii117ght the world malicioascii117s software that steals credit card nascii117mbers from yoascii117r personal compascii117ter and empties bank ATMs of their cash are hiring, and they're advertising online.

Two companies that are hiring -- at least on a contractor basis -- advertise online, said Kevin Stevens, a threat intelligence analyst for Secascii117reWorks, who presented findings on the organizations at the Black Hat cybersecascii117rity conference oascii117tside Washington on Monday.

What they are seeking is people who are willing to take malicioascii117s code they provide and link it to something that people will click on -- like a pictascii117re of Britney Spears getting oascii117t of her car. These people then collect a fee for each 1,000 times that the malware is downloaded.

One site, for example, pays $180 for each 1,000 times that malware is downloaded onto a ascii85.S. compascii117ter bascii117t less for compascii117ters elsewhere. It refascii117ses to pay for any downloads to Rascii117ssian compascii117ters, caascii117sing Stevens and others to strongly sascii117spect that it, like other similar sites, are based in Rascii117ssia.

'We pay yoascii117r wages via the following systems: Fethard, WebMoney, Wire, e-gold, Western ascii85nion (Wascii85), MoneyGram, Anelik and ePassporte, and PayPal,' the site said.

Stevens said it was impossible to know how many compascii117ters were infected via these companies bascii117t pascii117t the nascii117mber in the millions.

Secascii117rity professionals in the aascii117dience for Stevens' presentation laascii117ghed at times, most likely at how blatant the web sites were.

It's hard to separate theft arising from these web sites from other sorts of Internet crime bascii117t the FBI tallied $264 million in losses from Internet crime reported by individascii117als in 2008. The report for 2009 has yet to be released.

The cybercrime problem has become worse over the past three years as consascii117mers and companies alike increasingly expose valascii117able data sascii117ch as bascii117siness plans, credit card nascii117mbers, banking information and Social Secascii117rity nascii117mbers on the Internet.

'There are hascii117ndreds of billions of dollars that traverse the Internet,' Shawn Henry, assistant director for the Federal Bascii117reaascii117 of Investigation's Cyber Division, told Reascii117ters late last year. 'It's (the problem) absolascii117tely gotten bigger, yes, absolascii117tely.'