Is chasing cyber crooks worth it? This is the question raised by an article in CNN Tech.
It appears that there are those who say that trying to catch the cyber criminals is an exercise in futility. They claim that if and when authorities do catch the bad guys, those who are caught are mostly the middlemen. The head honcho, the mastermind remains scott-fee. Blame this on limitations on jurisdiction as a result of geography. According to Marty Lindner, “"The U.S. doesn't have jurisdiction on the [entire] planet Earth, so even if you can identify the author [of the malicious program], that doesn't give us the legal authority to get him, one, and two, it's not clear he's committing a crime," he said. "It's not illegal to write bad software. It's illegal to use it."
They propose instead to “develop new anti-virus technologies and to teach people how to protect themselves from Internet crime.”
The other camp, however, argues from the viewpoint of the traditional penal system—that is, the prosecution of these crooks (even if they are simply the middlemen) is a deterrent to future crimes.
My stand is rather diplomatic. Why not combine the two? Going after the cyber crooks and developing and strengthening new technologies are not, after all, mutually exclusive.
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15th Entry
Ralph Vincent Catedral
It appears that there are those who say that trying to catch the cyber criminals is an exercise in futility. They claim that if and when authorities do catch the bad guys, those who are caught are mostly the middlemen. The head honcho, the mastermind remains scott-fee. Blame this on limitations on jurisdiction as a result of geography. According to Marty Lindner, “"The U.S. doesn't have jurisdiction on the [entire] planet Earth, so even if you can identify the author [of the malicious program], that doesn't give us the legal authority to get him, one, and two, it's not clear he's committing a crime," he said. "It's not illegal to write bad software. It's illegal to use it."
They propose instead to “develop new anti-virus technologies and to teach people how to protect themselves from Internet crime.”
The other camp, however, argues from the viewpoint of the traditional penal system—that is, the prosecution of these crooks (even if they are simply the middlemen) is a deterrent to future crimes.
My stand is rather diplomatic. Why not combine the two? Going after the cyber crooks and developing and strengthening new technologies are not, after all, mutually exclusive.
_____
15th Entry
Ralph Vincent Catedral
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