tangled web - tales of digital crime from the shadows of cyberspace

[...]... Welcome to the Shadow Side of Cyberspace 3 Chapter 2: Inside the Mind of the Cybercriminal 9 Chapter 3: Been Down So Long It Looks Like Up To Me: The Extent and Scope of the Cybercrime Problem 21 Chapter 4 Let It Bleed: The Cost of Computer Crime and Related Security Breaches 39 PART I Crime, War, and Terror in the Information Age I n 1991, Alvin Toffler’s The Third Wave proclaimed the dawn of the Information... hate crimes on-line You can sexually CHAPTER 1 Welcome to the Shadow Side of Cyberspace 4 TANGLED WEB PART I harass someone on-line You can molest children on-line You can ruin someone else’s credit on-line You can disrupt commerce on-line You can pillage and plunder on-line You could incite to riot on-line You could even start a war on-line Types of Cybercrime There is a broad spectrum of cybercrimes,... Me: The Extent and Scope of the Cybercrime Problem 22 TANGLED WEB PART I The CSI/FBI Computer Crime and Security Survey In the summer of 1995, I received a call from FBI Special Agent Pat Murphy, a member of the San Francisco FBI’s newly formed Computer Intrusion Squad The S.F unit was only the second one established in the entire country ( Washington, D.C was the first; New York was the third.) The. .. the level of security awareness as well as to assist in determining the scope of computer crime in the United States The success of the survey is unprecedented in the field of information security Now in its fifth year, the annual release of the results of the CSI/FBI Computer Crime and Security Survey is a major international news story, covered widely in the mainstream print and broadcast media The. .. viewing them as adversaries and deriving some enjoyment from ripping them off.4 Many cybercriminals exhibit the Robin Hood syndrome, rationalizing that they are taking from victims who, in their view, can afford it But, as Parker remarks, there is a twist to it In cybercrime terminology, the Robin Hood syndrome doesn’t refer to “stealing from the rich to give to the poor,” but rather “stealing from the. .. is an acknowledgement of some of the many bright and dedicated individuals who have helped reveal what lurks in the shadows of cyberspace Their names and affiliations are strewn throughout the text There are others, too, who are not mentioned, or could not be mentioned, who have made significant contributions Without the foresight and daring of Patrice Rapalus, the director of the Computer Security... resources of private individuals through on-line manipulation Terrorists might well target critical infrastructures such as the telephone system, the power grid, or the air traffic control system These systems are run on computers and are vulnerable to cyberattacks Tangled Web is a journey into the shadows of cyberspace 7 E veryone is fascinated by cybercrime They want to know “why.” But as I outlined the. .. hurt everyone: I I I Electronic commerce crime (like the theft of hundreds of thousands of credit card records) threatens the Internet boom that has fueled the unprecedented economic recovery the United States has experienced over the past decade Economic espionage (like the theft of biotech secrets stored in digital files) threatens U.S competitiveness in the global marketplace Infrastructure attacks... But as I outlined the contents of Tangled Web and typed “Inside the Mind of the Cybercriminal,” I thought, “That will be a short chapter.” Why? Well, for three reasons First, why indulge in too much probing about the psychological roots of cybercrime or even the conscious motivations of the cybercriminals themselves in a world where so little time is spent looking for the psychological roots or conscious... embezzler’s thefts will escalate until he is stealing thousands of dollars from the company’s bank account The same is true with the theft of computer services Two programmers ended up in jail for running their own side business on company computers “But,” they said, “everyone does it.” Well, yes, other employees used the company’s computers for sending personal e-mail messages or playing games, but these . Tales of Digital Crime from the Shadows of Cyberspace TANGLED WEB RICHARD POWER A Division of Macmillan USA 201 West 103rd Street, Indianapolis, Indiana 46290 Tangled Web: Tales of Digital Crime. 403 Table of Contents I Crime, War, and Terror in the Information Age 1 1 Welcome to the Shadow Side of Cyberspace 3 Types of Cybercrime 4 Types of Cybercriminals 6 2 Inside the Mind of the Cybercriminal. taken from a novel about the Mafia. The CSI/FBI surveys in the beginning of the book present statistics on the growing awareness of the threat to our security. The participants in the series of