Botnets and Cybercrime

If cybercrime is causing millions of dollars in losses and if about 2.5 million computers have been identified by FBI to be infected by botnets which are being used to hack into individuals and institutions computers and information is being gleaned to commit fraud, identity theft, and denial of service attacks and also threaten national security by injecting spyware then why is it that for these of millions of dollars criminal actions the perpetrators are given such lenient punishments of 2-3 years. The FBI Director Robert Mueller said that “A botnet could shut down a power grid, flood an emergency call center with millions of spam messages or disable a military command post.” If the consequences of their crimes were harsher then these criminals would think several times before engaging in such activities. Read here.

Also read my previous post on botnets here.

Cybercriminals on the Prowl

The other side of the coin to the Internet’s convenience of world at ones finger tips is that the crimes being committed on-line are also on the cybercriminals finger tips, ranging from identity frauds, seducing kids on-line to the latest one of “online hitman scams“. Before the Internet era, crimes against people were mainly conducted within certain geographical boundaries but now with the Internet and access to people around the world at everyone’s fingertips, everyone in any part of the world who is having an on-line presence of some sorts is now a pry and an easy target to the cybercriminals.

Gees, were we better off in the good old days before we were able to function without becoming dysfunctional if we don’t use the net?