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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."
I've delt with cybercrime more than once. Doing the legwork and tracking the perpetrator down wasn't difficult for me - but had I not done it myself it would have never been done.
Until law enforcement steps up to the plate and carries over on their job, people are going to continue to feel this way. Even once I had tracked the perpetrator down I had to personally go into the local prosecuting attorney's office to re-explain the case because they didn't get it either.
People have a reason to feel like they are unprotected on the internet.
It's because for a greater portion of incidents, they are.
Then there is the FBI's fraud division they setup online - which seems to be there for the sole purpose of reducing phone calls they have to take, while yet ignoring the reports unless they are very large cases - something I have seen discussed here on slashdot more than once.
I'm sure there are people with victorious memories over online criminals, but those are surely trumped by the sheer volume of cases where the victim reports the crime and the responsible law enforcement authorities do absolutely nothing if for no other reason than they simply do not know how.
I don't think it's unreasonable to estimate that, in aggregate, spammers and the associated fraud is costing the country billions of dollars. I think it's a travesty that they don't seem to take the problem seriously. What I would do:
1) Stock pump scams. When one starts making the rounds (Cana Petrolium today judging by my mail), find out who made purchases of the stock in the previous week. Freeze their accounts until the individuals responsible can be dragged into an FBI office. If the FBI/SEC can't locate the individuals then it just means that the laws regulating the stock trade are jokes.
2) Phishing. Set up fake accounts with the banks being phished and submit them to the phishing sites. I'm sure the banks will be more than happy to help. As soon as anybody tries to transfer money in our out of the account, freeze the account on the other end.
3) Drug / Software scams. Same as #2. Set up fake accounts with Visa and MC. Submit them to the sites trying to 'sell' the stuff and wait for the account numbers to get re-used somewhere else (you didn't think any of these sites were doing anything other than harvesting CC numbers did you?). Follow the money.
If the Feds can't do these things, then I think it indicates that we may be at risk of a fairly catastrophic economic collapse. After all, if I can buy and sell stock illegally, take money out of bank accounts fraudulently and buy stuff with credit cards without authorization, and do it all anonymously, it's safe to say the criminals are going to win. If Bush would just declare these crooks to be 'cyberterrorists' and start subjecting them to extraordinary renditions and gitmo treatment, I bet his popularity would surge. And he would be doing something good for the country with his remaining two lame duck years.
And this will work better than reporting regular crimes how?
;) Police certainly didn't care as i didn't lose anything, nor did the phone co. Under WA law it was illegal nonetheless but i can't do a civil suit with no info and authorities don't care.
If they are no bodies the cops don't care unless maybe you are a multichain store. The cops get no revenue from a lot of legwork, good luck. If there aren't drug profits or ticket revenue i wouldn't hold my breath.....
An employee stole thousands in merchandise that was found in his garage and nothing happened. I have yet to have something bad happen to me or work (or the office or apt next door) that was actually solved except the one WE knew the answer to and that wasn't even prosecuted. Why would we have any higher hopes for cybercrime?!?
Hell we have unenforcable telemarketing/spam laws already. I got an illegal and scamming phone call but i am not able too get the info on where it came from. I am sure they scammed CC from people over the phone. If you do anything other than give them a CC number they hang up. Telco won't even give me a return number to investigate myself, I was thinking of the $500 deal a week before the articles here
Crime history depicts both the advancement in technology developed to commit crime and that developed to prevent it.
Ignorance toward preventative measures usually results in victimization or a greater likelihood of it. There is no epidemic here. Crime will occur on every medium available-one must simply defend themselves from it. Given, a criminal can be smart enough (or determined enough) to commit an illegal act and this is bound to happen. That is why we have executive and judicial branches of the government-to apprehend and serve justice to those who succeed in breaking the law.
The internet is in its nascent form (and I dare say almost anarchistic), but it is no less a system effected by (human?-)entropy.
Anything can, could, and will happen.
I guess I still think of hacking as the old definition that was not nefarious, rather than a cracker or cybercriminal. Now the mere suggestion that a hacker is not a criminal gets you labeled as a troll. Curious how far the PC police have taken over the Slashdot board.