Cybercrime is too easy
Here’s some more evidence (as if it were needed) to support my contention that we need a whole new way of addressing the Internet security problem. Robert Vamosi has an article giving the sorry story of how easy it was for a young man to carry out a career of cybercrime. One thing from the story that really gets me is that some of the computers that he infected with Trojans and then used in a botnet were not from clueless home users but belonged to the clueless US government.
Some of the bots included computers at the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) in Falls Church and at China Lake Naval Air Facility in California. The DISA offers network-based solutions for the President, the Vice President, and the Secretary of Defense.
The current system makes easy pickings on the Internet for criminals and other malefactors. Unless and until we change the way we approach the issue of Internet security, a career of cybercrime looks like an easy way to make a living. A related and perhaps even worse problem is the potential danger to the whole Internet from terrorists and Internet saboteurs.