Cybersecurity is not just a buzzword in our day to day society. Ever since digital assets have surpassed in value the physical assets, criminals have shifted their attention to where the money is. Let’s just remember the fact that over 90% of the world’s resources are digital. Cybercrime is part of our life, whether we like it or not, whether we acknowledge it or not.
Why do people engage in cyber-criminal activities? Scientist have analyzed the reasoning behind it and came up with a great formula to explain why we have people engaging in cybercrime.
These reasons are: personal gain, low obedience level, success, penalty.Thus they created this formula to quantify the incentive to create cybercrime, called ICC which stands for Incentive to Create Cybercrime.
The last but not the least important reason that cybercrime has expanded so much is the penalty, or better said, the lack of proper penalty. Many countries are simply not prepared for cybercrime. The law making process is long and tedious. The lack of proper specialized personnel to speed up that process makes most countries unable to deal with these type of threats.
Only last year in California, they have introduced a bill to increase the penalty for ransowmare. "The bill defines ransomware attacks as felonies that would carry a penalty of up to 10 years in prison and up to a $10,000 fine. At present, ransomware attacks are covered by Maryland's extortion statutes, the penalties for which range from a misdemeanor with a maximum $1,000 fine and up to 18 months in prison to a felony and a $25,000 fine and up to 25 years in prison.
Source: Bill Introduces Criminal, Civil Penalties for Ransomware | NBC4 Washington http://www.nbcwashington.com/blogs/first-read-dmv/Bill-Introduces-Criminal-Civil-Penalties-for-Ransomware--413079483.html#ixzz4kUlNLHH3
In Canada, the anti-spam law helps, but the law community is asking for additional laws to help prevent ransomware
Until every police department will have an anti-cybercrime unit, the greatest danger for a cybercriminal is having to deal with whitehat hackers or with their own competition. There have been many cases where cybercriminals were caught due to anonymous tips to the police in regards to their activity.
In conclusion, a more drastic set of penalties must be in action to stop this new wave of cybercrime. The lack of proper and clearly defined legislation is preventing the system to successfully manage these issues.
About the author:
Ioan Hipp is not a mathematical genius, he is not a world renowned expert or a prominent figure in the cybersecurity industry. He is just a passionate person on the new cyber world that our IoT is developing into, a storyteller and a contributor to a better society.
