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Cybercrime Now Worth $105 Billion, Bypasses Drug Trade
Sep 19, 2007 11 am
McAfee CEO David DeWalt says cyber-crime has become a US$105 billion business that now surpasses the value of the illegal drug trade worldwide.
Despite the increase in government compliance requirements and the proliferation of security tools, companies continue to underestimate the threat from phishing, data loss, and other cyber vulnerabilities, new McAfee CEO David DeWalt said Tuesday.
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A low-rent recidivist con man who targeted eBay customers was jailed for two years on Tuesday. Phillip Shortman, 20, from Cwmbran near Newport in south Wales, was sent to a young offenders’ institution following a conviction for ripping off consumers to the tune of £14,000 and breaching the terms of his probation. Shortman was given an eight-month suspended sentence in January after he was convicted of buying thousands of pounds in stolen fuel cards. He was also found guilty of another £45,000 eBay fraud in 2005, an offence that earned him a year in a detention centre.
US authorities have sentenced a man to seven years in prison for buying stolen identities from cyber-criminals in other countries. More than $1m taken from cash machines, including one single withdrawal of $148,000. He also held over 4,500 illegal credit and debit card account numbers and Pins and that more than $300,000 was transferred overseas.
Beijing, China: The former information security company Rising vice president Tan Wenming, along with his wife and university classmate made 2.81 million Yuan($371,000) selling a game plug-in for Legend of Mir 3, an online game operated by Optisp in China. There was a hearing last year and Tan admitted to selling the plug-ins and apologized to Optisp at the hearing. Early this year, Tan was convicted and sentenced 2 years and 6 months in jail by Beijing basic people’s courts, A new and final justice, made by intermediate people’s courts this Friday, changed it to 6 years and 500,000 Yuan Fine($65,000). His wife and his classmate, sentenced 3 and 2 years in jail, with $12,000 fine respectively.