The Cybercrime Threat

                                                                                                                                       Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

     The FBI director, Robert Mueller proposes cybercrime will outweigh terrorism as the FBI’s number one priority. 

As computers continue to become more prevalent in our everyday society the cybercrime threat only increases, because the magnitude of participates increases the possible amount of bots. Hacking is an undeniable alternative to the James Bond lifestyle. Now, you don’t have to be incredibly fit, agile and know martial arts to wield magnificent power. You don’t have to know how to wield a knife or a gun, you just need a computer and some codes. People can be lazy, sit around in their pajamas sipping coffee in their bed and steal money from half way around the world, or compromise company codes and data by wielding thousands of bots or injecting a computer virus, and it’s almost impossible to track. If you had a choice, why would you steal any other way?

The problem?         

                                                                                                                                                                                             NOBODY TAKES CYBER THREATS SERIOUSLY!

FBI Executive Director Shawn Henry said, “If I tell them (American public) there was a bomb in their house they would get it but if I tell them there is someone in their computer it just doesn’t resonate, because they often don’t see anything missing” 

(Easy Money: Hackers Pull of $70 Million Cybercrime). 

     Who cares if someone can access my files, or if someone is using my computer in a botnet to steal money, because I’m not doing it. Wrong! A major discussion topic now, is whether citizens should be responsible for the actions of their computers. And I think the answer is YES, if people know that their computer is messed up or contributing to a botnet well they better try to do something about it. However, the problem? People don’t know their computer has a bot. So why should you be punished for being naive? Well, the information is there; as an active citizen YOU need to inform yourself. Because a lack of education or proper protection against cybercrime could lead to a zero balance in your debit cards, savings account or credit cards charged up the ying yan.

According to the Department of Homeland Security, “During the five-month period between October and February,    there were 86 reported attacks on computer systems in the United States that control critical infrastructure, factories and databases compared with 11 over the same period a year ago"(qtd. in Schmidt). And half of power plant operators and “other critical infrastructure” admit to infiltration by an adversary (Robertson). The Department of Homeland Security documented more than 50,000 incidents of cyber intrusion since October, 10,000 more than last year.   

 Cybercrime is a REAL-LIFE threat. It is a legitimate crime; therefore it is naturally that it should have all the repercussions of a more accepted crime like physically stealing money from a bank. According to a research done by HP, released on October 8th this year, "cybercrime costs rise nearly 40 percent" (News Release).

 

http://www.symantec.com/content/en/us/enterprise/other_resources/b-istr_main_report_2011_21239364.en-us.pdf

Easy Money: Hackers pull of $70 million cybercrime. Msnbc.msn.com. 21 April 2012. MSNBC. Web. 21 April 2012.

"News Release." HP Research: Cybercrime Costs Rise Nearly 40 Percent, Attack Frequency Doubles. Ed. Kristi Rawlinson and Michelle Doss. HP Research, 08 Oct. 2012. Web. 08 Dec. 2012.

Robertson, Jordan. "Power Plants, Other Infrastructure Under Hacking Assault; 54 Pct Say They've Been Infiltrated." Canadian Press, The Newspaper Source Plus. 28 Jan. 2010. Web. 22 Apr. 2012.

Schmidt, Michael S. “New Interest in Hacking as Threat to Security.” The New York Times. New York Times Corporation, 13 Mar. 2012. Web. 25 Apr. 2012.

“University Professor Helps FBI Crack $70 Million Cybercrime Ring.” Rock Center With Brian Williams. MSNBC. 21 Mar. 2012. Web. 21 Apr. 2012.