Organised crime gangs are targeting students
The boom in cyber crime is forcing criminals to go to great lengths to recruit skilled hackers, says a report.
Some criminal gangs are paying students while they study to ensure they have a pool of tech-savvy workers to call on, says the report from McAfee.
Others are cashing in on the glamour of the hi-tech world to tempt youngsters into embarking on a life of crime.
McAfee said children as young as 14 years old were being targeted by some criminal gangs.
Greg Day, security analyst at McAfee and one of the authors of the Virtual Criminology report, said it aimed to explore the digital underground and how and where the criminal and hi-tech worlds meet.