The 2008 cyber crime report

The 2008 cyber crime report by the online security service provider, F- Secure, tells of the progressive nature of hackers. This year, in all aspects of cyber crime, an increase has been shown; this includes the “amounts of malware, in infections, in the number of botnets and in criminal profits”. Malware has tripled this year, almost increasing by 350%, proving a great threat as it only doubled in 2007. Over ten million new detections of malware were found in 2008 by F- Secure and were named and copyed so that they may be fought against by the systems protecting subscribers. Botnets pose a problem, as they are by definition viruses that infect a computer and link it to the source of the virus so the hacker may gather information. This year, botnets were reported to infect 12 million computers, or one percent of all the 1.2 billion estimated computers used worldwide. It is believed that the lack of punishing hackers is causing them to flourish and others to become hackers because of the lack of consequences.
I believe that the 2008 cyber crime report is alerting and calls for action to be taken so that the internet and its legitimate services will not be eroded by this surging wave of hackers. The internet is a phenomenon created by the electronic age and as any other legitimate product of man created to bring good, it was exploited by criminals at a perplexing rate. It is clear that hackers who are caught and made an example of does not convey the message law enforcement hopes to display; the quantity of hackers is sure to change the tide of crime.
Article originally posted on Google News http://www.netguide.co.nz/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=823&Itemid=16