U.S. is cybercrime central: Study
Source: THE GLOBE AND MAIL
By Jack Kapica
Date: May 15, 2003
Forget Third-World cyberterrorism — the top cybercriminals are Americans.
A British security company called ICC Commercial Crime Services has reported that 63 per cent of the world’s cybercrime originates in the United States. The company’s annual review has made a detailed analysis of the major cybercrime events from January 2002 to March 2003, and found that hacking and fraud are the most common offences.
Hacking alone poses the most significant security risk to both financial institutions and individual investors, ICC Cybercrime Unit (CCU) analyst Steven Matz said.
But other countries are coming on strong.
“Our case studies from countries like Japan, New Zealand and Romania are further indication that cybercrime knows no borders,” he said.
But the incidence of cybercrime in the United States may be high because similar crimes often go unreported in other parts of the world.
“It seems odd that a vastly populated area like the Far East only represents 10 per cent of the total reported events,” Mr. Matz said.
“Many areas are reluctant to report any form of computer-related crime. We would like to see increased reporting from regions other than the United States.”
Among computer-fraud crimes the group tracks are extortion and get-rich-quick schemes as well as attacks by disgruntled employees. Full story
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