Why cyberscofflaws get off easy
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CNET News.com's Declan McCullagh explains why convicted virus and worm authors are more likely to do Club Fed than hard time.
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Notorious prisoners' artwork, notes and even nail clippings are hot items online. But a new law might put a stop to it
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Though communications protections exist, the law is fuzzy regarding internet and e-mail activity. Watch out for the legalization of digital mind readers tracing internet users' thoughts and interests, and trampling privacy rights in the process.
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The US Justice Department&#39;s crackdown on cyber crime has brought to light illegal activities, including credit-card fraud, to the tune of over $215 million and resulted in dozens of arrests, a senior official said.
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Some experts doubt whether the California law will have much impact on illegal spyware activity. By George V. Hulme. A new California law aimed at curbing spyware, software applications that surreptitiously
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Among the more than 150 cybercrime arrests and convictions announced Thursday by the Department of Justice was an original: the nation&#39;s first case alleging denial of service attacks against competitors to knock them offline.
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Science & environment: Creators of malware are no longer script kiddies after kudos - they're criminals after your cash. Wendy M Grossman asks if protection can keep pace with them.
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A seamy practice with a slightly annoying name is separating unwary consumers from their banking information, according to a bulletin released by the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center.
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Despite growing fears about online fraud, a new study finds that most cases of identity theft originate offline.
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By Melissa Vargas Sanchez, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Texas  Sep. 24--Making sure your kids are staying safe in cyberspace just got a little less tedious.   Many parents and grandparents of teens are mystified when it comes to things like friends lists, comment sections and blogs.
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Federal law enforcement may be heralding Operation Web Snare as the largest cyber-crime crackdown of its kind, but it is receiving mixed reviews on whether it will stymie the rise in Internet fraud.
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Cybercriminals attack mobile devices because they have a relatively good chance of succeeding - and worming their way into your corporate network, experts say.
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(InfoWorld) - Moves by several European countries to tighten laws against computer hacking worry security professionals who often use the same tools as hackers but for legitimate purposes. The U.K. and Germany are among the countries that are considering revisions to their computer crime laws in line with the 2001 Convention on Cybercrime, a European-wide treaty, and with a similar European Union measure passed in early 2005. But security professionals are scrutinizing those revisions out of concern for how prosecutors and judges could apply the laws. Security professionals are especially concerned about cases where the revisions apply to programs that could be used for bad or good. Companies often use hacking programs to test the mettle of their own systems. "One useful utility in the wrong hands is a potentially malicious hacking tool," said Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant at Sophos PLC in Abingdon, England. In the U.K., legislators are debating amendments to the Computer Misuse Act (CMA) of 1990. The proposed revisions would make it illegal to create or supply a tool to someone who intends to use it for unauthorized computer access or modification. Likewise, the proposed changes to German law would also criminalize making and distributing hacking tools. The German government said the changes will bring it into compliance with the 2001 Convention on Cybercrime. Several German security companies are planning to lobby against the law, as they fear it could hamper those who test security systems, said Alexander Kornbrust, founder and chief executive officer of Red-Database-Security GmbH in Neunkirchen, Germany. For example, tools to check the strength of passwords, often freely distributed, could also be used by malicious hackers, he said. "The security community is very unhappy with this approach," Kornbrust said. "The concern is that the usage and possession of so called hacker tools will become illegal." The U.K. and Germany are trying to align their laws with Article 6 of the Convention, which bans the creation of computer programs for the purpose of committing cybercrime. So far, 43 countries have signed the Convention, which indicates their willingness to revise their laws to comply. Fifteen have ratified the Convention. After a country changes its laws, it can ratify the convention and put it into force. The Convention does not mandate a deadline for when countries must comply, and the process of changing laws can be lengthy depending on the country, said Margaret Killerby, head of the European Committee on Crime Problems, which tracks implementation of the Convention. But the goal is for Europe -- and other countries, such as the U.S., which also said it will implement the Convention soon -- to mount a consistent defense against computer criminals given the transnational nature of computer crime, Killerby said. A key point of the Convention requires countries to have a law enforcement contact available at all times to assist foreign authorities in obtaining electronic evidence, which can disappear quickly without quick moves by law enforcement. "What we want to have is an institution to allow states to cooperate with each other as rapidly as possible," she said. Those requirements are devoid of controversy. Individual countries can draft their own customized legislation to comply with the Convention, which can be used as a checklist, Killerby said. The Council has provided assistance to countries in central and eastern Europe in creating computer crime laws where none were on the books, Killerby said. Countries with existing laws will have find a medium that satisfies their own legal requirements and the Convention. In the U.K., the House of Lords is scheduled next month to debate changes in the part of the CMA concerning creation and distribution of hacking tools. The proposed revision to the CMA says a person is guilty of an offense if he makes or supplies something intending it to be used to commit an offense or "believing that it is likely to be so used." But officials are confident that the wording can be smoothed. The controversy could be dampened merely by changing "likely" to "primarily" which could "make sure we don't catch the legitimate penetration testers," said Merlin Erroll, a Lord who sits on the All Party Parliamentary Internet Group (APIG), during a recent presentation in London. REFERENCES: UK bill would increase penalties for cybercriminals, Jan. 27, 2006Analysts eye revamp of UK cybercrime law, Jun. 7, 2006UK teen pleads guilty to DOS e-mail attack, Aug. 24, 2006
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Cyber criminals could soon be mounting sophisticated phishing attacks that are hard to detect warn experts.
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Legislation such as the CAN SPAM Act as well as improved international cooperation in pursuit of cybercriminals is paying off, according to an FBI expert who spoke Monday at Chicago's Security Standard conference.
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Also: Tightening the Net on cybercrime. Read these stories and more from around the Web on News.com Extra.
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If you read the news, you'd think that most cyber criminals are lonely, maladjusted teenage hackers stealing credit card numbers from their windowless rooms. But the real damage is being done by organized syndicates, and they're playing for much higher stakes.