Thursday, August 23, 2012

Cybertheft Crackdown My Butt

I've read several stories of late flaunting some high profile cases where it seemed law enforcement and judges were finally cracking down on cybercrimes and cybertheft. I thought we finally made the turn and were prosecuting the perpetrators (hackers) of these crimes the way they should have been prosecuted all along. Then I read this today: http://www.bankinfosecurity.com/rbs-worldpay-sentence-too-light-a-5058/op-1

In a nutshell, the mastermind of the RBS WorldPay hack, where $9 million was pilfered from U.S. bank accounts, was sentenced to 30 months in prison and ordered to pay $89,000 in restitutions. Let's see, $89,000+30 months for $9 million, that comes out to a $297,000 per month. That's a pretty good payoff. I understand that he had accomplices' so he did not pocket the entire $9 million; but many wannabe hackers reading this will see it as $9 million for 30 months. This sends a strong message: Cybercrime pays!

Until sentences are large enough to discourage the crime, nothing will change: More money will need to be spent for cyber security -- more hacking -- more money -- more hacking -- and so on…