Cybercrime: How online crooks put us all at risk

This excellent article outlines the scope of cybercrime in this country and around the world. I highly recommend you take the time to read the entire article, and review the visual ‘map’ of how all of this fits together as it will really help your understanding. Here are just a few key points:

• Online criminal rings have created a sophisticated, cyberspace shadow economy, which government and research firms estimate costs us tens of billions of dollars annually. The crimes themselves, and their staggering effect on our wallets, are disturbing. Yet the greater concern is the failure of corporate executives, government leaders and average citizens to comprehend the mounting threat and fight back.
• These attacks cost real people real money — individual Americans lost at least $200 million last year to online fraud
• Businesses are hit even harder: Average annual losses from security incidents doubled to $345,000 per company in the 2007 Computer Security Institute survey. A 2006 FBI estimate pegged the total cost of cybercrime to businesses above $67 billion.
• Even the least technical crooks can launch phishing campaigns or control a network of millions of hacked computers at the touch of a button, by purchasing do-it-yourself cybercrime kits - For about $1,000 on underground sites, you can buy MPack, a full-service malware attack and distribution kit.

Things to think about

Every consumer plays a role in either minimizing or magnifying the reach of Internet crime. We each carry the responsibility not only to ourselves and our families, but to the larger Internet community to be informed and proactively defend against exploitation.

• Every unprotected Internet connected device becomes a vector for criminal use. 29 percent of home computers do not even have antivirus software installed according to Jupiter Research . This lack of protection impacts every consumer and business as unprotected computers are key routes through which criminals launch their attacks.
• Every individual who fails to learn how to identify phishing and other online fraudulent exploits feeds these organizations coffers and finances their ability to continue and expand their reach

What you can do:

1. Protect your computers and other internet connected devices – see my article A Dozen Things You Can Do Today to Get Safer Online, or for a fuller understanding see the Technology Toolkit section in Look Both Ways help protect your family on the Internet. Be sure you are receiving automatically every security update available to you.
• If financial constraints are a factor, look for lower cost alternatives.
• If the tradeoff is between purchasing productivity tools or protecting your computer, protect the computer and use free productivity tools like Google Docs and Spreadsheets which provide free web-based word processing and spreadsheet tools with functionality that meets the needs of most consumers.
2. Ask the people you interact with online if they have protected their devices – if they haven’t they increase your risks. See chapter 17 of Look Both Ways help protect your family on the Internet
3. Learn how to spot risks – read how on this website, learn more in Look Both Ways help protect your family on the Internet, and leverage sites like the Federal Trade Commission

We are all foot soldiers in the battle for control of the Internet – at stake is whether the Internet continues to be the fantastic opportunity we can trust and use, or a dangerous war zone where the risks eventually outweigh potential benefits.

It’s a fight we have to win.

Additional resource: Shadowy Russian Firm Seen as Conduit for Cybercrime