Viruses nip Russia after the Cold War

Date: May 26, 2004
Source: InfoWorld
By: John Blau, IDG News Service

... especially when laws are nonexistent in many of the countries that these guys are using to launch their virus attacks."

International law is often ill-suited to deal with the problem, with conflicting views on what constitutes cybercrime, how -- or if -- perpetrators should be punished and how national borders should be applied to a medium that is essentially borderless.

"What is needed is the ability to extradite," said Mi2g's Matai. "But this is not easy because of the anonymous nature of organized crime -- it's very difficult to pin down who actually committed a crime -- and because individuals who are caught committing a crime in one country may not have any laws against that crime in their own country."

Efforts to establish global cybercrime laws exist. London School's Hosein points to the Council of Europe convention on cybercrime, a treaty signed in November 2001 that calls on countries to harmonize their laws on and investigative powers of all illegal behavior, including hacking and child pornography, and to ensure international cooperation in investigations. But Hosein warns that as countries adopt the convention into national law, many tend to go further than necessary in order to expand their powers.

Some experts are in favor of establishing a special global cybercrime task force, similar to the Interpol international police network. "We just need to copy the Interpol structure for traditional crime, make some slight changes and establish cooperative programs," Gostev said.

In the absence of a global Net cop, Microsoft Corp. has been offering Wild West-like bounties to catch cybercriminals. But one former virus writer in the Czech Republic dismisses the bounty as a marketing tactic, saying it will have no deterrent effect. "For Microsoft, it's just another excuse for their buggy software," said Benny in an e-mail. "It's only about marketing."

Security experts believe the best way to curb cybercrime is for each and every user to make sure his or her front door is securely locked.

"A due diligence approach is required to help fight off this new wave of cybercrime," said iDefense's Dunham. "Everyone must take responsibility for helping to harden computers against attack, from the end-user to the CEO (chief executive officer) of a large corporation."

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2007-10-22 10:20:16 - this is sooo cool i'm a big nerd! Alec Frankson

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