When I grew up, if you committed a crime, you go to jail. Ok, maybe that's oversimplifying things a bit as the law didn't always catch and lock up the bad guys that easily. But compared to today's cyber criminals and the poor track record of locking them up, even the illusion of past law and order is better than today's reality.
Remember the ILoveYou worm that infected about 10% of all connected computers, overflowing the inboxes of many organizations including the Pentagon and the CIA? Well, if you don't recall, the worm's creator, Onel de Guzman, was arrested and then released for lack of an existing Philippine law to prosecute him. This is all too common when trying to catch these folks. No supporting law/legislation to use against them. And just how much damage was caused by this worm? Over $7 billion.
Imagine causing that much damage before the advent of the Internet. Good chance it would have taken considerably more time than Guzman needed to create this costly worm - if it could have been done at all. And I dare say that causing that much damage would have landed one behind bars for a long time. Not so today.
Thanks to networked computers, there's a whole lotta' cyber-thievery goin' on as some companies are actually buying stolen information about their competitors obtained from hackers. And to add insult to injury, some of these criminals are opening up Swiss bank accounts to hide their ill-gotten gains.
There's no doubt that the magnitude of today's crimes have been facilitated by the Internet. But the thought of today's cyber criminals actually getting away with their crimes should make everyone want to become a cyber warrior - if for no reason other than to make it more difficult for these crooks to carry out their nefarious activities.
