Raising the question of whether readers think that the creation of a forum dedicated to fighting cybercrime is an idea that will interest the public. by Walt Thiessen
(libertarian)
Wednesday, December 29, 2010
According to Adweek, a recent Gallup poll found that cybercrime is on the rise in the U.S. According to the poll, 11% of all Americans report that they've been victimized by some kind of cybercrime this past year, up from 7% the year before and an average of 8% per year the previous five years.
We are all concerned with crime, of course, including cyber crime, but libertarians in particular have, perhaps, different views than others as to how to handle and deal with it. As small-government types, most libertarians feel that this is an area that government should be spending more of its time investigating, rather than placing so much emphasis on involving itself in foreign wars, social safety nets, etc. I have an idea, a new way to attack this problem. Before I explain my idea, let me describe the problem in greater detail.
Most cybercriminals today, whether they're hackers, spammers, malware distributors, identity thieves, child porn traffickers, credit card thieves, or other categories have one thing in common. They're very good at using internet tools to hide. For instance, one of the most popular ways for a cybercriminal to hide is by using a proxy domain registration. This is where they register a domain name for a site where they plan to do their worst, but they do so using a proxy registration. For a nominal extra fee, a proxy registration hides their contact information from prying eyes, particularly the eyes of their intended victims. So if you find yourself a victim of a cybercrime, your ability to identify your attacker becomes extremely limited.
Add in the fact that police and FBI resources are extremely limited, and even if you report your particular incident, it will likely go uninvestigated. I, myself, have been a victim of cybercrimes a couple of times over the years, including one incident about eight years ago. I bought some online banner advertising from a small company in Danbury, Connecticut. The deal was that I would get 500 clicks for an agreed-upon sum. My ad was, indeed, placed, and I was given a website where I could track my clicks. However, I noticed right off that the number of reported clicks far exceeded what my website's logs reported in terms of directed traffic.
I then caught a break. The owner of the service moved his websites to a new server, and the server wasn't properly configured for ASP pages (the kind of dynamic pages his website used). As a result, for a day, his site showed the actual vbscript code he used to the public. I knew how to read that code, so I studied it and quickly learned that for every click, he was counting that click seven times. Clearly, this was a case of fraud.
I made digital copies of what I'd found and contacted the FBI. They actually opened a case file and assigned an FBI agent to it. He soon discovered that others had reported the same kind of problem to the FBI. It seemed certain this would be a case that would lead to an arrest.
Unfortunately, the arrest never happened. The events of 9/11 had occurred just one year previously, and as a result FBI resources were being focused on terrorism. I was never able to reach that FBI agent again. He never again replied to my email messages or phone calls. The case was dropped, despite the fact that they probably could have made a relatively easy arrest.
Recently, I thought of a way that private individuals can band together to go after cybercriminals, without waiting for the police or the FBI to do it for them. Why not create an online discussion forum where victims can band together and, with the help of computer-savvy supporters, go after cybercriminals with the purpose of dragging them into civil courts and (depending on what we dig up) perhaps even provide enough evidence for police forces to track down and arrest perpetrators? My working title for such a forum is the Cyber Crime Patrol.
While it would be difficult to drag people from other countries into court, there are certainly plenty of cybercriminals here in the U.S. to be collared. I recently ran across a website by a fellow named Dan Balsam. A few years back, Dan became so furious about email spam that he went to law school to learn how to go after email spammers. Since then, he has single-handedly filed dozens of lawsuits against spammers, and he's won a very high percentage of them, including 42 small claims suits! In particular, he's focused on going after spammers who send emails that engage in deceptive advertising. I've tried (so far without success) to reach him in order to learn more about how to go about doing what he does, with a view of building a small cyber army to carry out a similar program against cybercriminals of all kinds, not just spammers.
For instance, imagine if we could come come up with some simple "traps" for catching cybercriminals in the act? There are many computer-skilled people in the liberty movement, as well as tech-savvy people outside of the movement who also would like to see cybercriminals get their due. Why not combine forces, create a place where "white hats" can come together and strategize legal ways to use technology to go after cybercriminals, track them down, sue them, and where possible turn them over to the police for prosecution in the criminal court system?
If you're a person who would participate in such a forum, leave a comment and express your interest. Depending upon the responses I get, I may attempt to get the Cyber Crime Patrol started.
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Interesting point. However, we can't expect much from governments to protect us against cybercrimes. Let's say someone breaks into your house and steals $10,000 in cash and goods. You file a police report but chances are very slim that neither the cops nor you will find the criminals. It will be no different than with the cybercrimes. The chances of getting your criminal are very slim too. So I guess your cybercrime forum proposal would be the equivalent of a neighborhood watch. Not sure how it will work though.
