2007 Internet Crime Report

The 2007 Internet Crime Report, published by the Internet Crime Complaint Center (a partnership among the FBI, the National White Collar Crime Center, and Bureau of Justice Assistance), includes some interesting findings. The report demonstrates (not suprisingly) that internet fraud is on the rise. Reported losses were $240 million compared to $200 million in 2006. Other notable findings include that the most common crime occurred through the use of email and that those affected were more likely to be males rather than females. For IC3's previous reports see here.

New CRS Report On Botnets, Cybercrime

CRS recently published a new report entitled "Botnets, Cybercrime, and Cyberterrorism: Vulnerabilities and Policy Issues." Among the findings in the report are that "cybercrime is becoming more organized and established as a transnational business....[and that] designs for cybercrime botnets arebecoming more sophisticated, and future botnet architectures may be more resistant to computer security countermeasures."

Domain Name Theft

This Wall Street Journal article examines how domain name hijacking is becoming an increasingly prevalent phenomenon.

VOIP Security Whitepaper From IBM

This 16-page whitepaper from IBM discusses "vishing." From the intro, "Vishing is the practice of leveraging IP-based voice messaging technologies (primarily Voice over Internet Protocol, or VoIP) to socially engineer the intended victim into providing personal, financial or other confidential infor-mation for the purpose of financial reward." The term "vishing" is a contraction of the terms 'voice' and 'phishing.'

Law Firm Cleared of Hacking Opponents' Web Archives

Yesterday's New Jersey Law Journal reported on a case (Healthcare Advocates Inc. v. Harding Earley Follmer & Frailey) in which a law firm had been sued for allegedgly violating copyright and anti-hacking laws when it recovered old web pages belonging to its client's adversary. The opinion by Judge Robert Kelley, Jr. of the US District Court of Eastern District of Pennsylvania stated that the firm, in accessing pages from the Way Back Machine, did not violate any law. As stated in the opinion, "They did not 'pick the lock' and avoid or bypass the protective measure, because there was no lock to pick...Nor did the Harding firm steal passwords to get around a protective barrier... The Harding firm could not 'avoid' or 'bypass' a digital wall that was not there." A copy of the Complaint is available here. The opinion does not appear to be online.