McAfee CEO Says New Laws Are Needed To Deal With Cybercrime
from the passing-the-buck dept
McAfee CEO Dave DeWalt has been pushing politicians to create new laws to deal with cybercrime. He says cybercrime is now a bigger business than illegal drug trafficking in the US, and that the punishment doled out to cybercriminals isn't an effective deterrent. He may have a valid point there, but new laws and sentencing guidelines don't seem to be the most effective potential tool against computer crimes -- particularly when much of this crime comes from overseas, where being caught and punished by a remote government isn't likely to stop many criminals. DeWalt says that the technical side of security is "pretty advanced", and that government is lagging. But if things really were so rosy in the computer security business, it doesn't seem like there would be much of a need for new laws. He mentions malware and phishing, two areas where he says new laws could help -- but both of these represent areas where security vendors could show some improvements too. Traditional methods, like blacklists, seem to be flagging, so some fresh thinking and innovation in the industry, not just a bunch of new laws, would be beneficial. There are some areas, though, where some stronger deterrents might be useful, such as in getting businesses and government to take the security of personal information more seriously.
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I am aware that there is a major difference in scale. A dumpster diver will only obtain a couple dozen credit card numbers for each attampt where an online data thief will obtain thousands. No problem, each number needs to be a separate count. 1000 30 day sentences is a loing time in jail.
(Oh, by the way....FIRST)
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A PR masterstroke
Get the politicians involved so they can raise their public BS level for cheap vote getting tricks. The pols always appreciate that. (THE CHILDREN - THE CHILDEN)
All this for the cost of . . . . . a phone call?
Have to congratulate the jerk. Nice work.
None of my comments deny the existence or (cyber)crime.
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McAfee
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Sounds like a PR stunt...
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McAfee doth protesteth too much!
You're talking about one of the most scandal plagued companies of recent corporate history, one that just last year fired its president and let its CEO 'step down' over options backdating!
Not to mention the legendary channel stuffing that took place in the 1990s.
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McAfee - start using Unix
The 'virus' just take advantage of design flaws in Microsoft.
We have had a few 'virus'/worms/vulnerabilities on unix since 1970's. And Unix still can, if the person does BAD things like setuid programs. In 1984 it was clearly stated to NEVER write a email program that would directly execute code, and this was on Unix (a multi-user, non-root default) system.
On Windows it is _EXTREMELY_ dangerous, since most home users are setup as administrators also (Generally a bad idea). At least if it only installed as a user on a unix system, only the user was compromised, and with basic firewall setup the system is still safe.
McAfee has a vested interest in continuing on Microsoft since they have bugs to work on protecting, so more virus' can come, so they can sell more 'virus' protection software.
sigh..
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Re: McAfee - start using Unix
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the main advantage that security companies have over mal-ware and other junk is that people want their system on their systems.
also linux and mac can claim to be nice and safe, but the fact remains that there are always bugs and that most a good deal of attacks are social engineering... and if they were as popular you'd have the same people falling for it.
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Re:
also linux and mac can claim to be nice and safe, but the fact remains that there are always bugs and that most a good deal of attacks are social engineering... and if they were as popular you'd have the same people falling for it.
Precisely. Most linux, apple, whatever non-Microsoft OS users don't take that into account. They go on and on about how their "obscure" and "nonconformist" OS is so well pretected from attacks. What they fail to realize is that the attackers know that for the most part OSs by MS are still the most widely used. If the tables turned and MS OSs became obsure and linux became the big dog then the attackers would just refocus on linux.
It's not that other OSs are super secure its just that the attackers think its not worth it to attack other OSs for the most part.
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what good would a mac virus do when it can only target like 1% of the population? It is in fact possible to code hacks/viruses for any operating system.
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COMPUTER CRIME
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16 Million already....
I don't know if it is wise to create new laws to lockup people without addressing our already failing legal system. Not to mention we have completely failed to update laws in accordance with the information revolution.
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Append existing laws
Make hacking into someones computer a felony - just like breaking and entering.
Just apply a little common sense and name things by their name - not pretend there would be a gray area.
For the Unix/Mac suggestion - as already stated - that's wishful thinking. The moment Unix/Mac are representing a significant marketshare, they will be target. It's ecomomy 1:1 - not a more or less secure OS. ANYTHING can be cracked, hacked or manipulated. Enough proof out there in every area of our life. So get a grip and get real.
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