Sunday, November 05, 2006
Cybercrime and its faces...
The number of Internet users is increasing. In July 2006, we were 1.043.104.886 users. (Source : InternetWorldStats, 2006). And of course, the number of illegal actions is increasing too.What type of illegal operation ? They are several : for example identity theft that has already been discussed on this blog. But the basics of cybercrime came from the « Hackers » who wanted the Web to stay free. They began to be famous in the 80s for their technical knowledge and in fact they were also involved in the developpement of Internet (Hackers were appealed by the intrusion throught big company and governments’ system information). Most of them did not injure the system, they were doing performance just to show to administrators how they owned Internet. We used to call them White Hat. Kevin Mitnick is the most popular of them.
By oppoisition to Black Hat who had the same goal : get in a system information where they weren’t not welcome. The difference is that Black Hat Hacker were doing that for money (paid by hacked companies’ competitors for example).
Now, the Web is really different, more complex. Cybercrime has multiple faces.Here are some examples :
Economic espionnage : in the US, The ex IT manager de Lightwave Microsystems confessed that he stole databases from his company to resell it to competitors. It is one of them (JDS-Uniphase) who called the FBI.
Act of violence : Some bloggers were caught by the police in Saint-Denis near Paris during the suburbs events because they were encouraging voluntary damage.
Data loss…
In the Us, Bank of America announce that it lost backup contening more tha 1.2 millions of credit card numbers..
But do not think that Internet is not safe. They were more fraud in 2006 with checks than on The Internet. They are just few things to check on your computer : your firewall, your anti-spyware, your antivirus… May they be all up to date. And beware with your password, change them every 3 months, and do not write them down on paper.
Economic espionnage : in the US, The ex IT manager de Lightwave Microsystems confessed that he stole databases from his company to resell it to competitors. It is one of them (JDS-Uniphase) who called the FBI.
Act of violence : Some bloggers were caught by the police in Saint-Denis near Paris during the suburbs events because they were encouraging voluntary damage.
Data loss…
In the Us, Bank of America announce that it lost backup contening more tha 1.2 millions of credit card numbers..
But do not think that Internet is not safe. They were more fraud in 2006 with checks than on The Internet. They are just few things to check on your computer : your firewall, your anti-spyware, your antivirus… May they be all up to date. And beware with your password, change them every 3 months, and do not write them down on paper.
