[prev in list] [next in list] [prev in thread] [next in thread]
List: isn
Subject: [ISN] Romania tackles rise in cyber-crime
From: InfoSec News <isn () c4i ! org>
Date: 2003-12-29 10:10:51
[Download RAW message or body]
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/3344721.stm
By Clark Boyd
27 December, 2003
The Friday night scene in the bar at Bucharest's Polytechnic
University is a lot like any other college bar scene. Some students
knock back a few beers. Others enjoy a game of pool.
In another corner of the bar sit a dozen high-end desktop computers,
complete with high-speed internet connections. This is where the real
action or maybe the virtual action, is.
Students sit three-deep waiting to get on a machine. For less than a
dollar an hour, they can check e-mail, chat online, and listen to
music. Most of them, however, are playing violent video games.
Gaming aside, the youths who study computer science here are very
good. In fact, Romania's a global powerhouse when it comes to
computing and programming.
Pool of skills
It is a tradition that stretches back to the early days of Communist
dictator Nicolae Ceausescu, according to Florin Talpes, who was a
computer programmer during the Ceausescu years.
"Ceausescu had ambitions," said Mr Talpes, "maybe he dreamed that
Romania could be a power. In fact, in the 70s, Ceausescu wanted to
build a very modern Romania, very well connected to technology."
According to the computer programmer, Ceausescu succeeded.
"On the technical side, Romania has tens and tens of years of building
these skills, so we have a huge human resource pool with good
technical skills. So, the Romanians love the technical side, it's in
our genes to work on the technical side."
Those skills have got Romanians noticed in Europe and the US. Many
Romanian programmers have been lured away to work at software
companies outside of their homeland.
Romania's stagnant economy has meant that those who stay behind find
it hard to make an honest living in computers.
Economic hardship is causing some of those talented youths in
Bucharest's net cafes to turn to hacking and other forms of internet
crime, according to Andrew McLaughlin of Harvard University's Berkman
Center for Internet and Society.
"There's a significant number of very talented, very inventive hackers
inside Romania who, you know, are good at scamming people elsewhere,"
he said.
"And it's a real problem for Romania. It doesn't want to become a
haven for internet crime."
Online fraud
But Romania's reputation as a haven for internet crime is growing,
thanks to a number of recent, high-profile cases.
In one instance, Romanians hacked into a server at the South Pole
Research Center and stole sensitive information.
They then blackmailed the centre, threatening to share that research
data with other countries if they did not get their money.
Romanians seem to be truly coming into their own as cyber-criminals in
online auction scams, with the country ranking high in eBay's table of
estimated fraud risk.
Julia Mickey Wilson, a specialist with the Internet Fraud Complaint
Center, a joint initiative between the FBI and the National White
Collar Crime Center, says some Romanians set up fake internet auction
sites and accounts.
They then get unsuspecting Americans to send them money for products
that do not actually exist.
"A lot of times they don't feel they're actually committing a crime,"
she said. "It's more of an opportunity - if you send them your money,
you're sort of responsible, I think they have a mind set that they
kind of look at it like that."
But Romanian authorities are now fighting back.
Computer programmer Varujan Pambuccian, a member of the Romanian
Parliament, says that for too long, young computer workers in Romania
have thought that hacking and writing viruses was a resume builder,
the first step toward landing a well-paying computer security job.
He believes it is time to send a different message to young,
computer-savvy Romanians.
"We are trying first of all to explain to them that nobody is hiring
anymore hackers," said Mr Pambuccian.
"We're trying to explain to them now that this is not a way of finding
better jobs. This is a way of finding better jails."
Targeting cyber-crime
The politician wrote and pushed through Romania's recently passed
cyber-crime law. It is, he says, very punitive and very simple.
"We've translated the laws from the real world into the cyber world.
Because a site is my home in cyberspace, and if someone is trying to
force my door, it's the same as an illegal intrusion.
"It's 15 years of jail is someone is trespassing on my property here
in Romania. It's the same on the internet."
Tough law-making has been reinforced through the creation of a special
cyber-crime unit within Romania's national police.
It is headed by Virgil Spiridon, who has been working with the FBI and
other Western European police agencies to tackle cyber-crime.
"I think the way we could resolve the problem is to make some programs
in which these young people have something to create," he says.
"We shouldn't give them time to think about ways to do internet crime.
And I think the private sector should do that, not only the police."
The Romanian authorities hope that legislation, enforcement and
technology can make the country a leader in the fight against
cyber-crime.
The FBI has praised Romanian authorities for their efforts. US
officials have even suggested that Romania could serve as a model for
the whole of Eastern Europe.
-=-
Clark Boyd is technology correspondent for The World, a BBC World
Service and WGBH Radio Boston co-production
-
ISN is currently hosted by Attrition.org
To unsubscribe email majordomo@attrition.org with 'unsubscribe isn'
in the BODY of the mail.
[prev in list] [next in list] [prev in thread] [next in thread]
Configure |
About |
News |
Add a list |
Sponsored by KoreLogic