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Only 100 Cybercrime Brains Worldwide, Says Europol Boss

mrspoonsi writes There are only "around 100" cybercriminal kingpins behind global cybercrime, according to the head of Europol's Cybercrime Centre. Speaking to the BBC, Troels Oerting said that law enforcers needed to target the "rather limited group of good programmers". "We roughly know who they are. If we can take them out of the equation then the rest will fall down," he said. "This is not a static number, it will increase unfortunately," he said. "We can still cope but the criminals have more resources and they do not have obstacles. They are driven by greed and profit and they produce malware at a speed that we have difficulties catching up with." The biggest issue facing cybercrime fighters at the moment was the fact that it was borderless. "Criminals no longer come to our countries, they commit their crimes from a distance and because of this I cannot use the normal tools to catch them. "I have to work with countries I am not used to working with and that scares me a bit," he said The majority of the cybercrime "kingpins" were located in the Russian-speaking world, he said.

6 of 104 comments (clear)

  1. Only 100 you say? by ColdWetDog · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Perhaps 'only' 100 that you know about, but that statement is clearly insane. These attacks aren't just done by some long haired, Dorito fueled teenager with 16 screens and a hot girlfriend. Like everything else these days they're done by teams of people. Somebody good at Windows, somebody good at Cisco routers, someone skilled in social hacks, somebody with access to money.

    I don't know why we even bother with these sorts of articles. They guy's credibility is about as good as the average politician.

    "It is a tale told by and idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing."

    --
    Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
  2. Ok you limited good programming bastards... by MindPrison · · Score: 4, Funny

    Troels Oerting said that law enforcers needed to target the "rather limited group of good programmers". "We roughly know who they are.

    ...we know who you are, or rather I - Adam West, mayor of Quahog will spend MILLIONS of taxpayers money to find who those good programming bastards really are? Who are you, and where do you come from? I bet you're from the Matrix, spreading your ones and zeros all over the place. Hey, YOU! Yes YOU! Come here you, I'll catch you ZeroOne OneZero ZeroOne ZeroZero.

    Oh, they're crafty I tell you, those little programming bastards!

    --
    What this world is coming to - is for you and me to decide.
    1. Re:Ok you limited good programming bastards... by Njorthbiatr · · Score: 5, Funny

      It's only a matter of time before they catch the greatest mastermind of them all... 4chan.

  3. No shit, sherlock by damn_registrars · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Of course the top cyber criminals are from former soviet bloc countries. That's where the top spammers have resided for a long time as well, and there is a lot of overlap between the two sets. While in the US we don't have anti-spam laws that mean anything, in those countries the people tasked with enforcing the laws are openly accepting bribes from people who violate them.

    --
    Damn_registrars has no butt-hole. Damn_registrars has no use for a butt-hole.
    1. Re:No shit, sherlock by Caedite+Eos · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Don't forget that a lot of people there have decent CS and maths education, but less than optimal employment opportunities.

      Add to that a dim view of government in general, and you have a bunch of young people who will be happy to spend whatever time it takes to achieve a certain goal. For the wast majority the nefariousness of the goal is a complete non issue.

  4. Just more nonsense statements looking for a budget by Rick+in+China · · Score: 5, Insightful

    "We roughly know who they are. If we can take them out of the equation then the rest will fall down,"

    The same rhetoric is encouraged by the military industrial complex to start wars that benefit their bottom line. This is no different.. "give me the resources and I'll finish it up" -- yeah, just like the War on Drugs, too, right? Nonsense. You can't attack something without the centralisation and infrastructure of stable nations or organisations, which is why things like "Bomb Isis!" fail so miserably. This dude is just making monkey statements to get funding for his department, to which even if he succeeded in taking down "the hundred kingpins", nothing would ultimately change as others would rise in 'their' place.