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EU Gumshoe Chases Internet Villains

Posted by Zonk on from the blam-kapow dept.

Robert Haskins writes "The Pittsburg Post-Gazette is carrying an interesting Wall Street Journal story about a guy who works for Microsoft and chases virus writers, software counterfeiters, spammers and other suspected law breakers. Can companies really make a difference by helping law enforcement like this?" From the article: "Mr. Fifka isn't a cop. He works for Microsoft Corp.'s Internet Safety Enforcement Team. Created in 2002, the group is part of the U.S. software giant's intensifying efforts to combat cyber crime at a time when consumers and businesses are becoming increasingly frustrated with fraud and virus attacks on their personal computers, most of which use Microsoft's Windows operating system. As Internet crime proliferates, law enforcement is relying more on the private sector to help counter it. That's because tracking cyber criminals requires a different set of skills than police have traditionally used. Compounding the challenge is the speed at which new online threats are morphing."

5 of 106 comments (clear)

  1. It's Pittsburgh, not Pittsburg. by kurisuto · · Score: 1, Offtopic

    Pittsburgh is one of the very rare exceptions to the general rule that towns in the U.S. are spelled with -burg.

    In the 19th century, the U.S. Postal Service pushed to standardize all the towns ending in -berg, -burgh, -berg, etc. to a single spelling. Most switched, but Pittsburgh was one city which resisted the push.

    1. Re:It's Pittsburgh, not Pittsburg. by TeknoHog · · Score: 0, Offtopic
      In the 19th century, the U.S. Postal Service pushed to standardize all the towns ending in -berg, -burgh, -berg, etc. to a single spelling. Most switched, but Pittsburgh was one city which resisted the push.

      Interesting. Do you have any examples of places that did change their names?

      There's a related issue I started to think about with the recent story concerning the Neanderthals. I'd always thought the correct spelling should be Neandertal (without the H) because the name refers to Neander Valley in Germany, and the word for valley is 'Tal'.

      However, it turns out that 'Tal' is the modern spelling, and it was actually 'Thal' when the fossil discoveries were made. The old spelling remains in the name of the species, while the spelling of the place did change to 'Neandertal' in 1901.

      --
      Escher was the first MC and Giger invented the HR department.
    2. Re:It's Pittsburgh, not Pittsburg. by Snorpus · · Score: 0, Offtopic
      Interesting. Do you have any examples of places that did change their names?

      IIRC, at first Pittsburgh PA had to drop the "h" along with everyplace else, but they raised a big stink and somehow got special permission from the Postal Service to keep the original spelling.

    3. Re:It's Pittsburgh, not Pittsburg. by CastrTroy · · Score: 0, Offtopic

      There's a related issue I started to think about with the recent story concerning the Neanderthals

      Did anybody else read Neaderthals as Netherlands?

      --

      Anthropic principle: We see the universe the way it is because if it were different we would not be here to see it.
  2. Re:On the futility of treating the symptoms by over_exposed · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    At first glance I thought
    you had written a clever
    haiku. You fail it.

    --
    "The object of war is not to die for your country, but to make the other bastard die for his." - Patton