Teenage threat to corporate security

14 Nov 2005

Teenagers could be the biggest potential threat to online security according to a leading security firm. Where traditional hackers go after specific targets, be it a bank's database or a telecom company's corporate infrastructure, gangs of youths who barely know what they're doing are running programs causing inestimable damage to businesses and individuals alike.

These 'ankle-biters' or 'script kiddies' as they were previously known in online security parlance now have a new name: 'click kiddies'. Their evolution is thanks to the introduction of web-enabled applications, meaning canned exploits written by elite hacker groups are now more easily accessible to curious young surfers than ever before.

Regardless of their skill level, all script kiddies share a common strategy -they randomly scan the internet and if they find a vulnerable system, they start attacking it.

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