Listening to law enforcement authorities this week, it’s tempting to think we computer users have witnessed a major victory in dismantling one of the most active cyber crime enterprises on the net – a spam gang called M00P that also peddles Trojans, botnets and viruses, and can be hired out for cyber extortion or corporate snooping. Oh, and, psssst, if you’re in the market for stolen credit card details, if you need a few million e-mails for your phishing attacks, or just want a list of customer details from a business rival for old fashioned fraud purposes, M00P can help you there too.

The nefarious nature of today’s virus-writing syndicates would make one feel nostalgic for the simple days of meddlesome script kiddies tormenting us with homemade worms and viruses. Their handiwork was a headache, but the damage was short-lived, either because the antivirus vendors designed a patch for us, or the script kiddies simply kicked the habit, passed their driving test, found a girlfriend, a job, and will probably be running for political office in 2012.

It’s those who haven’t kicked the habit – the Web Menace 2.0 group – that we really need to worry about. They’re a sly bunch. They are not out for headline-grabbing virus attacks. They would prefer to infect maybe two dozen computers inside a FTSE 100 organisation. From there, they can siphon off juicy trade secrets and customer lists, then resell the booty on the numerous (typically, Russian) online auction sites to the highest bidder. The stealthy infiltrations of prized PCs have been the modus operandi of virus writing gangs for the past two years now, security experts say. We haven’t been hit with a MyDoom or SoBig in years. What we are hit with every day is much more devastating.

"You may think the situation is getting better, but, in reality, it’s getting worse," said Mikko Hyppönen, the chief research officer at F-Secure, a Finnish antivirus company. "Virus writing gangs have no interest in infecting ten million computers and attracting front-page news. That would draw too much attention. They want maybe 20 computers inside a corporation. This makes them more effective, more invisible. They can operate without being detected by the antivirus companies, without risk of falling into a honey pot."

With this in mind, the arrest this week by police in the UK and Finland of three men connected to M00P is indeed a significant collar. The suspects are British and Finnish, pointing to the broad, international network of the group. Mr Hyppönen, who has been following the exploits of the M00P group since February, says the arrest only represents a fraction of the group’s membership. He believes it could be as large as ten, with operatives in North America and the Far East too. One of the men arrested, a 28-year-old Scot is the alleged leader, but Mr Hyppönen says there could be more than one individual calling the shots. The other suspects are a Suffolk man, 63, who appears to be a M00P customer and a 19-year-old coder whiz from Finland.

If the profile of the suspects is correct, it points to a worrying aspect of such criminal organisations. In the digital age, an enterprising crook can easily recruit a programming genius from a large crop of willing and competent coders lurking anonymously online. Together, they can devise snooping software programmes and methodically infiltrate some of the world’s largest companies. Once they’ve collected the stolen details they can readily find a buyer – in this case, a 63-year-old from Suffolk. Such a customer could use the details for any number of purposes: to blackmail a business rival, to steal customers, to send out a spam deluge or re-sell the details to a fellow fraudster or phishing gang. The enterprise carries some of the trademarks organised crime tactics that the Kray Brothers brought to the East End of London in the 1950s and 1960s: blackmail, shakedowns, and business sabotage.

And gangs like M00P are not alone. Remember the Bagel (also called Bagle) virus-writing gang that terrorised us in early 2004? They too have quietly settled into the more lucrative world of online racketeering, Hyppönen believes. "They are still as active today and nobody knows where they are located. And these guys are more advanced than M00P," he says.

For police, there is another jarring parallel between the M00P gang and organised crime syndicates of the past, and that is a reluctance to talk. Intimidation and threats kept the Kray twins operating for years. Today, victimised companies are still reluctant to turn to the police for fear it could harm their reputation (companies may also not realise that they’ve been hit until it’s too late). Without cooperation from the business community, this menacing crime seems unstoppable. The Krays would be proud.

Bernhard Warner is a former Reuters internet correspondent in Europe and senior editor for The Industry Standard Europe. He writes about technology, the internet and media industries and can be reached at techscribe@gmail.com

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