You may have read the reports: We have captured Albert Gonzalez, one of the "world's biggest malicious hackers." Big deal.
I've been fighting cybercrime for more than 20 years, so you'll have to excuse me if I'm a little jaded for thinking that this "huge" hacker is but another small-time player in the big-time world of cybercrime. In fact, I'm pretty sure that we still haven't captured a single major player -- the Pablo Escobars.
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We know there are large, corporate crimeware gangs that steal tens (if not hundreds) of millions of dollars from unsuspecting Internet victims each year. They have corporate headquarters that would fit the mold of the Fortune 1000. They have extensive payrolls, pay millions in taxes, and enjoy business growth that would be the envy of Wall Street. Yet we haven't prosecuted a single person from any of these big online cybercrime syndicates, and I have no reason to believe that will change over the next few years. We are getting better at prosecuting cybercriminals in countries such as the United States, but these large organizations are based in other countries, protected by those nations' political leaders.
Professional organized cybercrime started with the "king of spam" corporate giants in the late 1990s. These organizations often made millions under the guise of legitimate Internet marketing while sending billions of illegal e-mails. Many of the owners became and remained rich. They bought large houses and outrageous cars, got new beautiful wives, and sent their kids to expensive private schools. Heck, spammers aren't even considered in the top 200 spammers unless they are sending out hundreds of millions of illegal e-mails per day.
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Download now »Definitely true, but sad. I love that you call them the way things are.
These crime syndicates are probably having a good laugh as they read this and they will keep laughing as long as the industry resorts to the sorry, broken-down security model in use today. That's another sad truth.
Location doesn't matter much. If it wasn't Russia, it would be somewhere else.
Well Mr. Grimes, wake up and smell the reality.
What is truly amazing to me is that you, who purport to be a trained security professional are unaware that as far back as the days of the Pharaohs of Ancient Egypt the story of security enforcement has been an uninterrupted saga detailing the failure of "security services" who out of cowardice, corruption, and/or cozying up to power have invariably focused their efforts on the politically emasculated and petty criminals while studiously avoiding any confrontation with the real large scale criminals who might pose a career threat.Perhaps you personally are NOT corrupt -- one can only hope -- but are a victim of an education system that no longer teaches history; other than the politically correct version, of course.
The unvarnished truth is that “security services” are largely worse than useless against any real threat because they will be either deliberately blind to such activities and/or active participants and perpetrators. While they generally make a great show of stopping small threats; they are largely rubber crutches at best when any real threat appears.
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