By Mr. Kelvin Esiasa
ATM crimes have made the world understand that criminals are everywhere. The world has also learnt that criminals are within our ideologies, and they are alive to all world developments.
The world has also come to believe that it needs to fight cyber criminals all heartedly, and the battle against criminals should not be left to a single person or institution alone. Sometimes I have argued with friends that cyber criminal were within the cycles of innovators.
This is because whenever there was a new innovation then a crime also emerged. It is in this regard I wish to call the issuers of credit and debits cards and manufacturers of Automated Teller Machines (ATM) to explain to the world what is in reality happening on ATM and cyber crimes.
They should also explain how they would should join the fight against cyber crime. Jason Moon, an ‘ethical hacker’ told Aljazeera that Cyber crime and hacking are much rife than was understood by the lay person or politician.
Aljazeera reported that cyber criminals were increasingly exploiting the speed, convenience and anonymity of modern technology to target individuals, corporations and governments.
In Zambia, the Zambia Police reported that About 4 million US dollars has been stolen from different commercial banks ATM withdraws through a scam involving three foreign criminals who had recruited and trained Zambians in cyber-crime.
While in USA, the Los Angeles times time recently reported that worldwide gang of criminals stole a total of $45 million in a matter of hours by hacking their way into a database of prepaid debit cards and then draining cash machines around the globe.
The mirror in UK reported that One of the gangs involved in stealing $ 45 million was caught on CCTV with a backpack bulging full of cash the gang fanned out across the world, hitting banks in Britain, the US, Japan, Russia, Romania, Egypt, Colombia, Sri Lanka and Canada at the same time.
The network hacked into a database of pre-paid debit cards stored with Middle Eastern banks and used the details to help themselves to bundles of cash.
The FBI on 20 May, 2013 announced the unsealing of indictments against three individuals who played critical roles in creating and distributing the Gozi virus, one of the most financially destructive computer viruses in history. The Gozi virus infected over one million computers globally and caused tens of millions of dollars in losses.
Nikita Kuzmin, a Russian national who created the Gozi virus, was arrested in the U.S. in November 2010 and pled guilty before U.S. District Judge Leonard B. Sand to various computer intrusion and fraud charges in May 2011. Deniss Calovskis, a/k/a “Miami,” a Latvian national who allegedly wrote some of the computer code that made the Gozi virus so effective, was arrested in Latvia in November 2012.
Mihai Ionut Paunescu, a/k/a “Virus,” a Romanian national who allegedly ran a “bulletproof hosting” service that enabled cyber criminals to distribute the Gozi virus, the Zeus trojan, and other notorious malware and to conduct other sophisticated cyber crimes, was arrested in Romania in December 2012.
While the internet has revolutionized business and communication almost overnight, laws regulating its use and misuse haven’t developed as swiftly. Cyber crime has also been increasing at the same pace of development in Information Technology. But who is the cause of cyber crime or the inventor of cyber crime?
Should we accuse the innovators of IT packages as prime suspects of Cyber crimes? Or should we treat cyber crimes as the story of computer virus? Where the innovators created computer and later created virus in order to create a multibillion business. Or should we look at it as another world business was where thieves have teamed up with business leaders to siphon money from the poor?
May be we should say these are works of business mafias or baboons aimed at turning the focus of the world.
Molly Henshaw (American Daily Herald) explains that historically, a decline in economic stability has typically resulted in an influx of crime ranging from petty theft to murder. Often, this is a direct result from the high number of unemployment. When individuals are laid off from their jobs or have a challenging time finding stable employment, depression, anger and other negative emotions may permeate throughout the population.
Emotional instability especially financial problems can induce individuals to go to risky lengths to stabilize their unfortunate situation. Individuals who have never resorted to crime may be more inclined to do so in a state of desperation. People may do whatever is necessary to provide for their family or to pay their bills.
Sara Sentor also explains that there were a number of reasons that cause cyber crime. She said confidential data from security firms, scientific databases, financial institutes and even governmental organizations is stored online and on networks.
This allows cyber criminals to initiate unauthorized access and use it for their own needs. Sentor also mention that Operating systems had complex codes that could be decoded or manipulated to gain access to the system.
She added that sometimes simple negligence could give rise to criminal activities, such as saving a password on an official computer, using official data in a public place and even storing data without protecting it.
Surely, is it true that the people who are perpetuating cyber crime are common men and women or unemployed people who want a living or should we all say that this is another powerful undercover organization that is robbing people to finance conflicts in the world and other dirty businesses in the world?
Therefore, the world should now get united and fight this war if financial security be would guarantee. All of us should have a role so that people who are involved in it can be stopped.
Indeed Cyber crime is a wakeup call.