Launching malware is just a few clicks away.

• Author: Magnuson, Stew
• Position: INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

PLANO, Texas -- How easy is it to enslave someone's computer?

"All you have to know is how to click," said McAfee Labs Research and Communications Director Dave Marcus.

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To prove that point, McAfee has set up a demonstration for its clients where they actually create malware that can be used to enslave computers.

Russian crime syndicates are happy to sell would-be cyber-thieves or spies a basic toolkit for $4,000. Add-ons "with all the bells and whistles" might run as much as $15,000.

McAfee has coined this business CAAS, "crimeware as a service," and it includes online or live tech-support.

Showing ordinary law-abiding web-users this software was once considered taboo in the Internet security community, but McAfee believes it's more important "to get people a better understanding of [malware] and a healthy respect for what it actually does and how it actually operates," Marcus said. Participants are given a workbook and a special laptop that cannot be connected to the web. Devices that could download the software are forbidden in the classroom. Users open up the Microsoft friendly toolkit and within a few minutes have created a virus that can potentially enslave a computer. It...