Targeting cybercrime

The Federal Bureau of Investigation has designated "cybercrime" – a term to describe crimes committed using the computer and the Internet – as its third top priority, following the spate of computer-related crimes in the United States.

FBI director Robert Mueller said cybercrime "is the wave of the future and to address cybercrime, we will have to look at it from the perspective of the cyber-world."

Mueller said perpetuators of cybercrime have often inflicted damage to member-companies of the Information Technology Association of the America or ITAA, which registered about $800 billion in cumulative revenues in 2001.

"Our projections indicate that the number of Internet-enabled crimes will increase radically over the next few years, with the potential for driving down consumer confidence in Internet security and stunting the growth of e-commerce, neither of which we can afford," Mueller said.

He added that "traditional" crimes have migrated online, including various frauds, identity theft, copyright infringement, child pornography and child exploitation.

"What has happened, as you all know, is that the powerful technologies that have done so much to improve the quality of our lives are also being used by some of the worst elements of our society: small-time criminals who can take on a whole new persona on the Internet, malcontents who can find like-minded hate groups, and scam artists who think they can escape detection in the anonymity of the Web," he said.

Mueller further noted that a new breed of cybercriminals now perpetuate complex cybercrimes, including computer intrusions, denial-of-service attacks, worms, viruses and attacks against the root servers on the Internet.

In response to these problems, Mueller said the FBI would be reshaping itself, focusing on terrorism as its first priority, followed by counterintelligence and cybercrime.

Meanwhile, ITAA head Harris Miller disclosed that the challenge of curbing cybercrime is both large and multi-faceted. The ITAA expects cybercrime to adversely impact the global e-commerce business.

He added that crimes committed against companies could include insider stock trading, extortion and money laundering, among others.

"The list is probably as extensive as the Internet itself. Throw in the specter of state-sponsored terrorism, organized crime, contraband smuggling and the like, and the issue of cybercrime goes global," he added.

Miller also noted that the rights and responsibilities of companies who are victims of a network attack or cyber intrusion have yet to be defined, including the issue of disclosing company information – to the public and business competitors – that may help protect critical infrastructure assets and public safety. – Quadmedia News Agency