Global Crime: A New Twist on Fighting Internet Crime
Kaitlyn Toomes
March 18, 2011
9:38 AM
With Rustock, a New Twist on Fighting Internet Crime
This week "a small group of computer researchers, backed by Microsoft's lawyers, U.S. Marshals and international law enforcement officers executed a number of surgical strikes on the" Rustock botnet. The botnet is a piece of software that gives criminals access to an infected machines. "It is installed by tricking a victim into visiting a malicious Web site or opening a specially coded email attachment." After a case, led by Microsoft, was brought against the "anonymous operators" of Rustock the courts awarded Microsoft with court orders to "seize the servers used to control the botnet, and the Dutch police helped take down servers outside of the U.S." Because of the complexity of Rustock Microsoft can really only suppress new domains from forming. Until "Rustock's creator -- a hacker known only by his online handle PE386" is arrested the botnet will return the moment Microsoft lets down their guards. As of now, researchers are attempting to discover a way to preeminently take down the botnet, while law enforcement around the world work on discovering and capturing its creator.
The point of this blog is to research and discuss global crime, or crime outside of the United States. However, Internet crime seems to be borderless. The Rustock botnet had a negative effect on citizens around the world with Internet access. The reason Internet crime is becoming the next huge global social crime is because it does not stop at a border, or consider the nationalities of its victims. Internet crime really is a global epidemic. I think the Rustock operation is a positive example of what can be achieved when the world unifies to take down a global crime. Microsoft received help from countless law enforcement officers, including the U.S. Marshals and the Dutch police. If the world can work together to confront the problem of Internet crime we may be able to actually become a force in preventing and stopping this global problem. A social problem is considered to be solvable. I feel Internet crime is solvable as long as every country works together; after all every country that has access to the Internet faces the possibility of experiencing Internet crime. Hopefully, the next step will be to capture this global criminal known only as "PE386" before he is able to resume attacking computers, and people around the world.
Source:
With Rustock, a New Twist on Fighting Internet Crime
McMillan, R. (2011, March 18). With rustock, a new twist on fighting internet crime. Retireved from http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/222530/with_rustock_a_new_twist_on_fighting_internet_crime.html
1 comment:
I found your post very informative. I hear about crime like this all the time. What I find encouraging is that you talked about how many groups of people all over the world are working together to stop this particular person. Many of these posts show only the negative side of issues, it is nice to hear about something being done to solve the global problem of internet crime.
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