Hacking (also called “cracking”) has become big business. Indeed, a report released by the FBI earlier this year estimated that “computer-related crimes cost U.S. businesses a staggering $67.2 billion a year.” The profits are so great that organized crime has become involved and recruits teens as young as 14 years old, the British Broadcasting Corporation reports.
The problem is complex. Hacking is globalized, meaning that hackers don’t necessarily ply their trade even in the same country as their victims. And according to Lance Spitzer, the founder of the Honeynet Project, even when a hacker is tracked down and caught, law enforcement must find someone who is willing to prosecute the hacker. Unfortunately, they often cannot. Thus, according to Spitzer, hackers “don’t have any fear of being caught.” Equally discouraging is the fact that, according to Spitzer, “the minute there’s a new security tool out there, the bad guys find a way around it.”
With huge profits (mostly through extortion, fraud, and identity theft) and little risk, it’s no wonder hacking is becoming both more organized and a bigger problem. More perplexing is finding a solution. It is difficult to raise the risk for hackers; international law is often powerless to stop weapons trafficking, let alone a nonviolent crime such as hacking. Furthermore, even once the hackers are caught, it would be difficult to know what to do with them—for all we know, prison time may increase their criminal tendencies and exacerbate the problem as today’s caught hackers are released.
Instead, to me at least, we need to raise the barriers for hackers. If hacking is difficult enough, fewer people will do it, thereby shrinking the absolute amount of hacking that’s done. Thus, we need effective prevention. This means educating businesses and the public about patching, Internet security, trustworthy software, and the threat of identity theft. This is not an easy task, but it may be our best hope to reduce this expensive form of crime.
Anyone with other ideas or strategies, please comment.
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