Abstract
Cybercrime is rising for many reasons. One unfortunate reason is that cybercriminals are often able to avoid detection and prosecution. Cybercrime presents obstacles to law enforcement that are not easily overcome. Law enforcement training in cyber-forensics has improved steadily, but enforcement agencies, particularly in local agencies, are still behind. Cybercrime is usually remote crime. Investigation frequently requires probes into unfamiliar jurisdictions. These probes can be expensive and are less likely to be successful than an investigation on familiar turf. When investigation reveals a remote suspect, bringing the suspect to trial usually requires extradition, which is also costly and risky. Consequently, low-dollar remote cybercrimes are difficult to prosecute and often unpunished.
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Notes
- 1.
For a look at the decline in conventional crime, see Neil Howe, “What’s Behind The Decline In Crime?” Forbes, May 28, 2015. www.forbes.com/sites/neilhowe/2015/05/28/whats-behind-the-decline-in-crime/#3a3a8eec7733 . Accessed August 2016. For the rise in digital crime, see Steve Morgan, “Cyber Crime Costs Projected To Reach $2 Trillion by 2019,” Forbes, January 17, 2016. www.forbes.com/sites/stevemorgan/2016/01/17/cyber-crime-costs-projected-to-reach-2-trillion-by-2019/#31b8dad13bb0 . Accessed August 2016.
- 2.
The story of the programmer who wrote code to snatch the fraction of a cent discarded when dollar amounts are rounded down to the nearest cent has grown to an urban legend. Whether it actually ever occurred is open to question, although I have heard more than one loquacious old-timer deliver an eyewitness account of the crook being marched out in handcuffs. Real or not, there is a kernel of truth. An insider with access to code can modify complex systems to skim resources in ways that even a detailed audit could miss. This is always a danger.
- 3.
See Kim Zetter, “An Unprecedented Look at Stuxnet, the World’s First Digital Weapon,” Wired, November 3, 2014. www.wired.com/2014/11/countdown-to-zero-day-stuxnet/ . Accessed August 2016.
- 4.
“Total unit shipments of PCs worldwide from 2006 to 2015 (in million units),” Statistica, 2016. www.statista.com/statistics/273495/global-shipments-of-personal-computers-since-2006/ . Accessed June 2016.
- 5.
“Number of smartphone users worldwide from 2014 to 2019 (in millions),” Statistica, 2016. www.statista.com/statistics/330695/number-of-smartphone-users-worldwide/ . Accessed June 2016.
- 6.
“Internet Users,” Internet Live Stats. www.internetlivestats.com/internet-users/ . Accessed June 2016.
- 7.
Staff, “Fifty billion internet nodes predicted by 2020,” Electronics Weekly, January 8, 2013. www.electronicsweekly.com/news/business/information-technology/fifty-billion-internet-nodes-predicted-by-2020-2013-01/ . Accessed June 2016.
- 8.
Susannah Fox, “51% of U.S. Adults Bank Online,” Pew Research Center, August 7, 2013. www.pewinternet.org/2013/08/07/51-of-u-s-adults-bank-online/ . Accessed June 2016.
- 9.
Apparently, Willie Sutton did not say this, but he has often been quoted as saying it. For general background, see “Willie Sutton,” Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willie_Sutton . Accessed August 2016.
- 10.
For details on his charges, see United States District Court, Southern District of New York, “United States v. Ross William Ulbricht, Indictment,” Department of Justice, February 4, 2014. www.justice.gov/sites/default/files/usao-sdny/legacy/2015/03/25/US%20v.%20Ross%20Ulbricht%20Indictment.pdf . Accessed June 2016.
- 11.
Ryan Mac, “Living With Ross Ulbricht: Housemates Say They Saw No Clues Of Silk RoadOr The Dread Pirate Roberts,” Forbes, October 9, 2013. www.forbes.com/sites/ryanmac/2013/10/09/living-with-ross-ulbricht-housemates-say-they-saw-no-clues-of-silk-road-or-the-dread-pirate-roberts/#344e84c764f2 . Accessed June 2016.
- 12.
Nate Anderson and Cyrus Farivar, “How the feds took down the Dread Pirate Roberts,” Ars Technica, October 2, 2013.
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2013/10/how-the-feds-took-down-the-dread-pirate-roberts/2/ . Accessed June 2016.
- 13.
Jim Edwards, “This Is The Physics Student And Used Book Seller Who Allegedly Ran The ‘Silk Road’ Market For Drugs And Assassins,” Business Insider, October 2, 2013. www.businessinsider.com/meet-ross-ulbricht-the-brilliant-alleged-mastermind-of-silk-road-2013-10 . Accessed June 2016.
- 14.
Nicole Perlroth, Michael Corkery, “North Korea Linked to Digital Attacks on Global Banks,” New York Times, May 26, 2016. www.nytimes.com/2016/05/27/business/dealbook/north-korea-linked-to-digital-thefts-from-global-banks.html?_r=0 . Accessed June 2016.
- 15.
This sidebar is not for network engineers! It is only a sketch of what goes on with IP and MAC addresses. I have intentionally simplified by leaving out some major complications, like network address translation, static addresses, and IP versions.
- 16.
Cornell University Law School, “U.S. State Anti-Spam Laws: Introduction and Broader Framework,” LII, undated. www.law.cornell.edu/wex/inbox/state_anti-spam_laws #.Accessed June 2016.
- 17.
Fortunately, the spammer is not likely to get off. Spamming is illegal under the federal law and would probably be extradited for spamming, not the disguised address. Once the spammer arrives in Washington State, they are subject to local law and they can be nailed for the disguised address as well as spamming.
- 18.
For the text of the convention, see “Convention on Cybercrime,” Council of Europe, November 23, 2001. www.europarl.europa.eu/meetdocs/2014_2019/documents/libe/dv/7_conv_budapest_/7_conv_budapest_en.pdf . Accessed August 2016.
For current status of convention ratification, see “Chart of signatures and ratifications of Treaty 185,” Council of Europe. www.coe.int/en/web/conventions/full-list/-/conventions/treaty/185/signatures?p_auth=UQvnS5gj . Accessed August 2016.
- 19.
See “Early NAIC Analysis Sheds Light On Cybersecurity Insurance Data,” National Association of Insurance Commissioners, June 30, 2016. www.naic.org/Releases/2016_docs/cybersecurity_insurance_data_analysis.htm . Accessed August 2014.
- 20.
Lest anyone get sporty, filing a false or intentionally misleading report is a felony. See the sidebar, “Reporting Cybercrimes,” for more detail on reporting.
- 21.
For more information on EC3, see “Combating Cybercrime in a Digital Age,” Europol. www.europol.europa.eu/ec3 . Accessed August 2016.
- 22.
For more information on Interpol’s anti-cybercrime activities, see “Cybercrime,” Interpol. www.interpol.int/Crime-areas/Cybercrime/Cybercrime . Accessed August 2016.
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© 2017 Marvin Waschke
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Waschke, M. (2017). Why Doesn’t Somebody Stop It?. In: Personal Cybersecurity. Apress, Berkeley, CA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4842-2430-4_7
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