Cybercrime — an Epidemic?

ChelleChelle writes "'Cybercrime is pervasive, nondiscriminatory, and dramatically on the increase.' So states TEAM CYMRU, an altruistic group of researchers focused on making the Internet more secure. This article is a look into the root causes of Cybercrime, its participants, and their motivations, as well as suggestions on what we can do to stop this epidemic." From the article: "Many victims do not seem to draw the correlation between their losses and cybercrime; worse, they often view it as a crime that is impossible to investigate and prosecute. For cybercrime to be acknowledged as an important issue, the victims must report such incidents to a receptive law enforcement community with a well-informed judiciary. Attempts such as the president's National Strategy to Secure Cyberspace represent a significant first step in the right direction. To have the desired impact, however, the detailed provisions delineated as action/recommendations must be implemented."

Comments

Re:how do you know when it's cybercrime?

[b0s0z0ku]

It's probably not truly a crime, but it seems sleazy at best. Why would people be allowed to base their cold-calls on someone's posted ads?

You posted your number with the premise that you're selling a car. They're just trying to sell you a service based on that information. Now, if you would have put a disclaimer (like on Craigslist) saying something like "bona fide buyers only. No commercial services or solicitation," you might have been (in theory) entitled to recover civil damages.

-b.

Re:how do you know when it's cybercrime?

[Red Flayer]

Google is your friend.
By the way, this is why you never post your cell number online. Set up a temp email address instead, or ask interested buyers to post their number, not yours.

And their motto is:

[A beautiful mind]

Team Cymru: Securing people and sheep - online.

You just have to report it!

[cybercrime]

Problem w/ cybercrime is that it is unreported. People are either 1) afraid to report, or 2) don't know how to report. Concern #1 is legitimate - some businesses don't want to have everybody know that their security is weak. Concern #2 is awareness problem - users should know what to do in case something bad happens to them. So, to play my part in user education and awareness - some ways to report cybercrime.

Crime increases rampant as new laws are made up

[gd23ka]

This is a no-brainer, really. The more you criminalize people the more crime you get.
Take the internet, and take file-sharing and then just add the two together and
outlaw file sharing, you get an instant couple of million of additional criminals.

Nothing to see here, move along citizens. There's a whole "Enforcement Community" to be
built here on the net, much like the "War on Drugs" racket that criminalizes millions
of Americans already and is the cause for more than 70% of all incarceration in this country.

for stupidreason in Drugs War Terror; do
          echo "War on $stupidreason & profit"
done

But hey it's for the children and in order to keep them safe we have a billion dollar
          Corrections Industry (Corrections USA Inc. comes to mind)
          Three Letter Agencies that lap up your tax dollars
          Special Police Squads
          Drug Testing Laboratories (to test you at the workplace)
but that's so 20th century, now with "Cybercrime" we get
even more people in prison
even more Three Letter Agencies
even more Police Squads
even more Wiretapping and spying on your home computer
even more searches of your property at the airport (they already started copying harddrives at the AP). ...

If you're not dumb I think you get the picture: another artificial reason to criminalize, prosecute and
incarcerate in the making and bread and butter for thousands more of bureaucrats.