Computer crime – the best way of earning money by Barbora Misakova

There was a lot of articles and studies written about technical revolution, which hit our era and made from it a century of picture. I would make this label a bit wider by saying that it is also a century of information (or better say easy available information?). You bought new digital camera and took it on holidays on Canary Islands. You were taking pictures of your wife sunbathing on the beach, children playing near the sea, you drinking a beer in one of the local pubs. You put this pictures on you internet photo album and just send the link to it to your friends and other family members – it’s easier than to write long mail and putting every picture as attachment. But the last thing you are thinking about is the security. You don’t think about the safety of your privacy, safety of information about you and your close relatives. Of course who would ever think, that some stranger could be interested in your holiday pictures. But this possibility shouldn’t be underrated! Pictures can say a lot about you – who you are, where do you live or work, and sometimes they can tell a lot also about your income. And there are still more and more Peeping Toms!
As the FBI’s cyber division head said, computer spying and theft of personal information is growing up so quickly we can hardly imagine. There are organized-crime groups which are trying to penetrate the networks of American companies and also government agencies to get precious information and then sell them for big money. Even though FBI doesn’t want to specify which countries could be these potential spies, most of the guilt falls on Russia and China. One example of Russia’s electronic spying prowess was when they conducted some kind of “cyber warfare” to Georgian government websites what (surprisingly) happened at the same time as the Russian troops were carrying out the military offensive. But I don’t want to point on any particular country, because these kinds of electronic Toms can live also in our country! Except big number of electronic spies there are also a lot of forms and ways of information stealing. The most spread form of “information burglary” is so called “botnets” – it is a form of malicious software which gets into your computer without your knowledge and then everything you have in your computer – from school essays, pictures of your family to tax return – become public. In the worst cases this software can shut down whole your system. Well, the truth is that there is range number of methods and most of them are not even known. The fact is that machines we created for serving and helping us became the guns used against us.


related story: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20081015/tc_nm/us_security_cybercrime;_ylt=Aug2AtabvwVWC5JaQBYKQc6s0NUE

by Barbora Misakova for PocketNews (http://pocketnews.tv)

PocketNews is a new real-time news broadcaster delivering the latest and hottest news right to your pocket ! With global clients who want to be kept up to date, PocketNews is everyone's way of keeping in touch with the World.

These news are original content from young talents around the world and are selected for you by Chris Cantell.


edited by Beata Biskova