Beware Brit cops bearing battering rams. Four nabbed over Trojan claims British cops have arrested four people suspected of using Trojans to illegally take control of computers. The arrests were made as part of a international operation led by Europol which aimed to clamp down on the criminal use of Remote Access Trojans (RATs). These malware nasties are capable of taking command of a target's …
“This operation demonstrates once again that all of UK law enforcement is working to respond effectively to cyber crime, and together we will continue to collaboratively target those who use technology to misuse other people’s devices, steal their money, or unlawfully access confidential information," said Archibald. ®
Lets say it how it is...
The UK economy lost (estimated) 6.8 billion to cyber crime over the last year.
We have cyber bulling that remains un-dealt with too.
We have terrorists organising themselves on social media.
We have the big players dodging taxes.
We have companies playing fast and loose with data, with breaches all over the place.
Hence, In the grand scheme of things, this isn't news.
But if a bank loses all your details to some hackers then it gets a small fine and nobody gets to kick any doors in
Yes but police could show up at the bank's various IT offices with armed police to scare the nerds and then the detectives could take every box of paper and every computer on the floor.
It is probably even more fun than kicking doors in.
But that isn't how things are done in the UK.
@TheWeddingPhotographer
In the grand scheme of things it really does depend on how you look at it, my wife told me three weeks ago that one of her accounts had been hacked, the bank blocked the account, but it did take 2 weeks to get the 1,700 GBP back in the account :-)
Two weeks? Count yourself very lucky, some years ago it took 5 months of pestering to get my Barclaycard cancelled and my money returned when fraudulent charges started appearing. This was back when they had Stephen Fry (I think) doing their adverts saying it was ok to use online.
Then the very week I managed to finally cancel the card, the other two household members received Barclaycard pens in the post along with offers to join...
"Hence, In the grand scheme of things, this isn't news."
What would it take for this to be news in your opinion? Would they have to stage one grand arrest in which they booked everyone one of the criminals you describe?
Law enforcement and the judicial system generally work one criminal at a time.
We don't go in for show trials and mass arrests in this country.
The UK economy lost (estimated) 6.8 billion to cyber crime over the last year.
Yes. So your point is that the police should stop interfering with this otherwise successful business?
We have cyber bulling that remains un-dealt with too.
Bullying is a cultural issue that has more to do with the way people think than the law. Demand new law allowing civil prosecution for Civil Rights Violation and let the victims get revenge through the courts.
We have terrorists organising themselves on social media.
And everywhere else. Your point?
We have the big players dodging taxes.
A matter of the need for Tax Statute Reform - demand your MP work to close the loopholes that make this so easy.
We have companies playing fast and loose with data, with breaches all over the place.
The people in charge are human and make mistakes. That said, there should be corporate law to penalize companies that don't learn from the experience of data loss by hacking - say, if the Dimwit Bank doesn't learn to encrypt everything after their (insert large number)th break-in.
New law doesn't just happen because you want it to. You must engage in the political process. Your MP is there for a reason - use him or her. Make them earn their money. Tell them what you want and why, then pester them until they understand that they want it too. Organize.
You can't expect anything to change if you just sit there using The Force.
They've limited resources, and according to the newspapers today police forces may face a 20% cut in future budgets/manpower.
Whilst there is an argument that the vast amounts of money reportedly spent on spying on us all could be better spent, perhaps on preventing cybercrime, that's not an issue that can be affected by individual police forces, nor the national bodies such as the NCA, and certainly not the officers and staff working at this sort of level.
Perhaps a little more moral support from the IT "community" (sorry, a dreadful term but I cannot at present think of one better) would be appropriate. Someone somewhere has hopefully not had their computer hijacked today as a result of the disruption caused to these (alleged) villains, in the same way as I or my loved ones might not be mugged tonight if the beat patrol has raided the house of a known mugger this afternoon.
I'm never going to know about that, and the system isn't perfect, but for the time being it is what we've got.
Perhaps we as an industry should devise better OS that ordinary users dont need a degree level education to configure properly to reduce the risks of such crime in the first place in the same way as as we dont expect to be mechanical engineers to use a normal car safely.
Perhaps we as an industry should devise better OS that ordinary users dont need a degree level education to configure properly
We have it already - have you tried a recent Linux distribution? Please don't trundle out the "difficult to use", "free, so it can't be any good" and all the other usual excuses....
You have nobody to blame but yourself if you persist in using Microsoft brokenware. In fact you deserve the consequences of your negligence!
The Police haven't got a clue about "cybercrime". The claims of £6.8bn stolen is actually trivially small when compared to the spectacular manipulation of exchange rates (carried out by abusing insecure Windoze servers) and the other corporate abuse of computer systems. The reality of the amounts stolen or diverted is several times the Police claim (and Plod thought they were over-egging their press release!).
Now, back to the negotiations with this Nigerian Prince I met on line.......
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