Lolita C. Baldor
December 10, 2009
FBI agents fanned out that night to warn the branches that hackers were aiming to break into their computer systems. The banks were able to spot the attempted breaches, and block them, FBI officials said.
Concerned about the rise in this type of sophisticated computer attack from abroad, the FBI and the U.S. Secret Service are beefing up their international cybercrime enforcement, sending agents who specialize in the threats overseas to specifically deal with digital perils."
This article sits at the nexus of a number of subjects that've been on my mind recently; the expansion of cybercrime, and the roadblocks of international law in pursuing it; the difficulties experienced by nations possessing different levels of technology and possessing different views of crime. While everyone pays attention to the international community's arguments over the World Bank and climate, for some reason the effects of the internet on the global community (or maybe I should say the reinvention of the global community) isn't getting much press...which is funny, because due to both practicality and social currents, it's having the most impact of all.You can't get away from international contacts online, and you don't really want to. If you blog, belong to Facebook or visit forums, you've probably got friends in Britain, Romania, and Japan whom you talk to on a daily basis. Likewise, governments now have to collaborate to deal with these connections that flow past national borders like air. The old obstacles that protected regional interests are no longer feasible. Every barrier to collaboration can geometrically increase the danger of theft, privacy invasion, and even terrorism. Thanks to these pressures, the world is going to look very different in 10 to 20 years on levels many of us aren't even considering.
This is an area in which we, as responsible computer users, can actively help. I'm not saying we should go out and become net-vigilantes, but savvy web denizens can make a real impact by spreading knowledge about basic computer security and by reporting our reasonable concerns to the authorities. Keep in mind that the "authorities" here often aren't the police. If you see something suspicious on Facebook, send a message to the Facebook staff. The companies that form the backbone of the internet also form a very active part of the web of internet security. They are in a position to investigate and usually to clean up problems they find, and they have ready contacts (often in many countries, because of the nature of social networking sites) to pass on information that law enforcement needs to deal with.
