Brian Krebs, Washington Post Journalist, Named Cybercrime Hero by Cisco

What's happening: Cisco's 2009 Annual Security Report names Brian Krebs, Washington Post journalist, as winner of its Cybercrime Hero.

The report writes: Kudos to Brian Krebs, who reports on computer security issues in his Security Fix blog on the website of The Washington Post. Krebs has spent a significant amount of time researching and reporting on banking Trojans like Zeus and Clampi and exposing how they operate.

In the fall of 2009, Krebs published a series of articles about the online “bank jobs” conducted by the sophisticated malware that Zeus and Clampi distribute. Through his extensive research and reporting, Krebs managed to discover a great deal about these Trojans. The tactics and routines associated with the malware—and the significant number of businesses and individual users who have been affected by it—would likely impress even some of the most successful bank thieves in history.

Krebs has taken time not only to report on these dangerous threats, but also to provide readers with practical and easy-to-understand advice about how not to fall victim to such scams.

What it means: Congratulations to Krebs for his award. The information security community has a friend in Krebs. One can only hope that a Pulitzer follows.

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Cisco names Security Fix author 'cybercrime hero'