Alarm Raised On Teenage Hackers

Arno Igne writes to tell us that the number of underage participants in "high-tech" crimes has risen steeply in recent history. Reporting children as young as 11 swapping credit card details and asking for hacks, many are largely unskilled and thus more likely to get caught and arrested. "Communities and forums spring up where people start to swap malicious programs, knowledge and sometimes stolen data. Some also look for exploits and virus code that can be run against the social networking sites popular with many young people. Some then try to peddle or use the details or accounts they net in this way. Mr Boyd said he spent a lot of time tracking down the creators of many of the nuisance programs written to exploit users of social networking sites and the culprit was often a teenager."

Comments

"Underage"?

[Sockatume]

At what age does high-tech crime become legal then?

Using kids

[Ethanol-fueled]

There are cases of Immigrant smuggling where the drivers were juveniles because juveniles are much more difficult to prosecute.

That's how I'd operate if I were a fraudster - have the kids to the dirty work and give them a cut. There are hordes of bored shithead suburban kids who would love to be "elite haxxors" and they would most likely avoid prosecution the first time.

I forget the term...

[MyLongNickName]

I forget the term, but there are laws on the books that state that if you are a landlord, and you continually have tenants who engage in criminal activity that the authorities can confiscate the house. It is a slow process, but the point is that if you own the property that you have some responsibility in insuring that it isn't being used for purposes that are harmful to society.

Apply that to social networking sites and...

Jobs for Kids

[colganc]

I wonder if kids had some kind of job if they would be less likely to steal or break the law.

Fraud was common when I was a kid

[TheMiddleRoad]

I grew up in Socal. Many people I knew would beige box 900 numbers to get time on a local BBS. Several got all sorts of gear, mostly paintball crap, through credit card numbers gained through dumpster diving. These were mostly 16-17 year olds doing the deed, with some doing it younger, but it's harder when you can't drive.

The temptation was huge but I managed to not give in. Heck, the temptation still is huge. Why work hard when you can make a few thousand in a few minutes? Oh yeah, because it's wrong. Sigh.

Re:Gosh, underage hackers with no skill?

[kdemetter]

Yeah , this is really worth a 'nothing to see here , move along'.

I mean , this is nothing new . It's been that way for over a century.

I don't like that they track down the 'creator's of those nuisance programs ' , though . Programming these things is a fun way of learning how it works.

They should be going after the people who USE it for malicious purpose instead.

I mean , maybe we should just lock up the creators of the Windows API , because you can really do some damage with that.

Way overdue for another Operation Sundevil?

[Phizzle]

I remember back in late 80s, things were getting out of hand with newbie kiddies just getting into hacking and phreaking and playing with credit card numbers and phone codes. They were creating too much noise that made investigations of bigger fish more difficult. So law enforcement folks got credit companies to bankroll Operation Sundevil, put up a sting BBS (Phoenix Fortress) and captured a tonn of minors, most of who had files with phone codes and credit card numbers because they shotgun downloaded everything that seemed "cool". There are a bunch of honeypot sites and rooms popping up now getting ready to reel in the next crop.