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Hackers Not Afraid of Being Caught
An anonymous reader wrote in to point us to an interview with Honeynet Founder Lance Spitzner where he says "Years ago it was hackers who were doing it for the bragging rights, now it's the criminals. The motivation has changed, hacking is now profitable and there's so much money to be made with very little risk to the actual hackers."
Hackers are the 21st Century equivalent of the mercenary. Pay them enough money and they will do what you want. As long as someone somewhere feels the need to crack a database or extract sensitive information from some business/person, there will hackers ready to answer the call. Crack down on them, and all you do is reduce their number, weeding out the weak ones, and leaving a highly competitive and lucrative market for the strong ones.
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Perhaps that's understandable since many of those countries have enough non-tech issues to deal with already. But I think that if that's the case, they just shouldn't be allowed on the internet yet. There really needs to be a bar for entry.
And, just how do propose to do that?
The Internet is an agreement to exchange digital information with previously agreed-upon protocols. Nothing more, nothing less. ANY node on the Internet is abstractly equal to any other. It's the World of Ends that gives the Internet its value! As with most things, it's greatest strength is also its greatest weakness.
I'm surprised we haven't started seeing vigilantes tracking down hackers and spammers. When governments can't handle things, the mob takes over.
I'm surprised that you haven't recognized that the Realtime Blacklists are nothing but vigilante actions - whole swaths of the Internet blocked from communicating due to misbehavior...
What else would you call that?
I have no problem with your religion until you decide it's reason to deprive others of the truth.
The war for the meaning of the word "hacker", but come on now. If whatever you're doing is not for the satisfaction of the accomplishment, you're not really a hacker.
It's kind of like the distinction between a slut and a whore. Sluts do it because they enjoy it, whores do it for financial gain.
LK
"Hi. This is my friend, Jack Shit, and you don't know him." - Lord Kano
When it comes to (criminal) hacking, or any other illegal activity, the smart perp will consider the risk-reward of his behavior. Unless the potential payoff of a crime is significant, it simply does not make good economic sense to do it.
Example: say you offer me $100,000 to commit a crime which may carry a 10-year prison term. To me, such an opportunity is not worth the risk. Even at a low-wage job, I can earn $20,000 a year, $200,000 in a decade. Why would I sacrafice $200,000 of earning power (minimum) for a potential $100,000, to say nothing of legal fees, destroyed reputation and the horror of pound-me-in-the-ass Federal prison?
Back in the day, when I was a minor and thought I was invincible, I occasionally slipped between the gray and black, and did a few things that were not exactly kosher. However, my motive was not money, but rather the thrill of "showing them how smart I was". Had I been thinking clearly, or been subject to adult-level criminal law enforcement, I would have stuck to the benign aspects of hacking.
That said, would I ever "hack" illegally again? Yes- but only on the condition that I left my potential prison sentance with enough cash to retire early.
barack to the future?
Several years ago we filed a case with the FBI over an issue where a spammer hacked into our system. We gathered logs and had details on exactly where they came from and where they were operating. In this case it was an American. We had overwhelming evidence of credit card fraud, hacking major networks, as well as computer tampering and lots of monetary damage and interruption of e-commerce. We did most of the work -- the FBI basically collected the information we provided and did little investigating of their own, and then presented the case to the attorney general in two separate jursidictions, at which point our case was blown off. No wonder the hacker/spammers aren't scared. The authorities are apathetic and unmotivated to prosecute people in these fields when they clearly break the law. The exception seems to be if you're a child who has annoyed a very large corporation.
What complete and utter unsubstantiated bullshit. First of all the novelty of an alarm system is notification of the police, who job it is to *gasp* uphold the law.
I take it you don't live in major city with high crime...
This morning I walked out to see a car window smashed. Hey at least it wasn't mine, but it has happened to me before. The problem is that you can better protect yourself with the free market than police.
I have an alarm on my house as well because if someone did break in without it, the police would come by and make a report, shrug and then leave. I've got a 0.00001% of recovering anything if I diligently harass the pawn shops.
With the alarm, there is the nice deterrent and the police can respond (I'm also like the emergency "help I'm being held hostage button combination" in case someone tries to get me to forcefully disable to alarm at gun/knife point).
So yeah... In a perfect world the law and the police are enough to dissuade any criminal, but you are a fool if you don't protect yourself. Sure a master criminal locksmith could find a way to hack my home alarm and steal my belongings but I doubt I have anything worth their time.
I'm more concerned about the crack heads and various other thieves that want to grab anything of value even if it is worthless to me (I've had someone break into my car to grab a case of CDRs).
Think of it like the script kiddies versus the master hacker... Either type of these groups aren't going to be dissuaded by laws if they don't think they are going to get caught.
If you think laws do stop all crime because of fear of punishment, I would like you to talk to my neighbors down the street who deal drugs because apparently that isn't dissuading them. (Even though we've reported them to police already!)
If yo live in a nice cozy suburb then I can see where you get this type of mentality, but when you are forced to live with criminality on a daily basis you start to realize that if the are people like these that know how to use computers, then I doubt they are going to have the same qualms either.
And yeah... I should move, but the neighborhood is nice if it weren't for the one set of neighbors and if I stick it out I might make quite a sum of money because of increasing property prices.
"I am the king of the Romans, and am superior to rules of grammar!"
-Sigismund, Holy Roman Emperor (1368-1437)
Very little risk you say? What about this guy?
_ pass_h.html
http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2006/11/boarding
"On a scale from 1 to 10, people are stupid"
Hammurabi's code had laws like "If you steal something form the temple, you will be put to death." A simple risk/profit analysis would indicate that stealing something from the temple is probably not worth it. However, 'hacking' on the internet is relatively low risk of getting caught and the punishments are relatively small. People will generally act within their own best interest and the legal ramifications are only one part of the consequences of action. In the case of home robbery, there's the shotgun blast to the face consequence on top of the legal ramifications. In the case of hacking, unless you hack the mob/FBI/CIA/IRS you're unlikely to find yourself in a 'car accident.'
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Just because something is "easy" (picking quality locks is not easy), or can be done doesn't mean people have the skill to do it. Most criminals don't have those skills and if they did they would have legal career opportunities open to them. While there are exceptions to this most criminals are unskilled and unable to support themselves by other means.
I would really love to see a reference for that study. What I have seen, however is studies that people are far more willing to do crimes when they believe they will not get caught, which is quite different then what you are saying.
Absolutely, and another correlations is education level. However I have never heard of a correlation between crime/education/wealth and morality. Could it be that when a person is desperate they will risk imprisonment because they have to eat where someone who has a skill wouldn't risk imprisonment? Laws, just as much as morality are at play here.
THANK YOU! I agree with you! Jail and even death sentences don't deter crime as much as strong moral beliefs. It IS TRUE that most criminals did not consider the consequences prior to breaking the law. Do you think the shop lifters, car thieves, and gas station robbers REALLY carefully way the consequences? Do you seriously think they are saying to themselves: "On one hand I can get about $50 bucks from the register.. on the other hand.. I could get A) shot by the clerk or B) spend 6 months in jail" NO..they aren't Tougher laws won't do SH___ towards stopping hackers. People don't commit crimes PRIMARILY 'cause they A) feel it is morally wrong and B) have more the loose from getting caught then from profiting. -- So moral beliefs and social disparity have more to do with crime then sentencing. Hackers in other countries, I bet, don't think they are gonna get caught... and have probably convinced themselves that they are only preying on those that have money...so it's not really that wrong.