Call to rally against cyber crime

A San Francisco conference organized by security firm RSA has called for concerted effort in fighting the highly organized cyber criminals of the world. Recent reports showed that cyber criminals had infiltrated everything from the US power grid to the Pentagon. Statistics revealed at the conference indicated that the internet is increasingly being used by online fraudsters. Sophos revealed that a web page was infected every 4.5 seconds and every day more than 20,000 new samples of malware were discovered. Symantec also said it had blocked roughly 200,000 attacks every half hour in 2008. Its CEO said that the attackers are shifting from random attacks to targeted ones, making every person a potential of victim. Cyber attacks can take many forms, such as stealing medical records, stealing financial data and stealing state secrets.

RSA President Mr Coviello outlined three key practices to combat cyber crimes. They included collaborating on standards, sharing technologies and integrating technologies and controls in the infrastructure. Developing new security technologies is also important, as Microsoft revealed its pilot new identity-based security technology in Washington State Schools for teachers and students to access grades and class schedules securely.

Cyber crimes are quite different from other crimes. The target of cyber criminals is essentially information rather than money or people as in non-cyber crimes. The key feature of cyber attacks is that they are not subjected to constraints of border, time and rule of law. It is encouraging that the conference urged for collaborative efforts in combating cyber attacks because cyber crime is by its nature a global crime. These collaborative efforts require participation of four different parties. Software security companies must develop and share new security technologies to outcompete cyber attackers. Individual users must stay alert from any potential cyber attacks and report promptly any attacks to the software security companies. Institution users must integrate security technologies into their infrastructures. The law enforcement agencies must cooperate intensely with the abovementioned three parties to effective combat cyber crimes.

Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8011160.stm?CFID=64838319&CFTOKEN=89511862