Cyber Crime On The Increase

Posted Wednesday 6th May 2009 by admin in Uncategorized.

The current economic crisis is leading many people to trawl the internet for get rich quick schemes that are leaving them wide open to cyber crime in the form of criminals being able to set up spoof websites that  can then hack into users computers and steal personal data. Website viruses are increasing to the point where computer security company, Sophos, have stated in their 2009 Security Threat Report, that an infected website is discovered every 4.5 seconds. Emails with malicious attachments have increased five-fold since the beginning of 2009.

The risk with this is that using an infected site, or opening a malicious attachment, could lead to a user being the victim of identity theft. While Russia and China are still the main areas of concern for this type of criminal activity, the West is also under increasing threat, with the emphasis on the US, due to resources being ploughed into getting the economy back on its feet rather than being put into protecting computers.

United States computer security has been described as ‘broken’ by some experts and a push is on to bring their system up to date before something more drastic occurs. In fact, a quote  from US security research company SANS Institute, describes the governments computer defence as “embarrassing”. President Obama has ordered reports and is expected to appoint a cyber security specialist imminently.

Attention in the US has been drawn to the subject of cyber crime after their power grid was hacked into recently and a project entitled Joint Strike Fighter Project was also shown to be at risk. The government now admit they are vulnerable to cyber attack. The head of the Pentagon’s new Cyber Command – in charge of computer security within government – says that a whole new digital warfare force is needed. In only six months, the Pentagon have spent more than $100 million on repairing damage from computer hackers.

No institution is risk free, from a country’s defence system right down to the average Joe with his bank account or credit card details on his computer. The important thing is that now we are all more aware, the right processes be put in place to counter these cyber criminals activities.

Related Posts

1. Cyber War Is Waged
2. Malicious Programs Increase To One Million
3. Colchester web company backs fight against knife crime
4. UK Companies Prepare For Cyber Monday
5. Mobile Viruses on the Increase

Interested in this subject? Have your say...