THE CRIMINALS ARE KEEPING TABS ON US

Once we used to keep records on criminals, now they keep records on us, by stealing ours,

Peter Warren, chairman, Cyber Security Research

Institute .

About the author

Peter Warren, is the chairman of the Cyber Security Research Institute, a not-for-profit organisation committed to producing accurate information about trends in technology crime and what to do about them.

He is a well known investigative journalist with a specialism in technology

Peter has worked frequently with the Sunday Times Insight team, the Sunday Times and the Guardian and most national newspaper.

A former associate producer for BBC 2 news and current affairs and the investigations editor for BBC2’s ‘The Net’

He is also the co=author of the critically acclaimed ‘Cyber Alert’ published in 2005, which accurately warned of the emergence of organised computer crime gangs

The High-tech crimewave

It is not new - criminals have always been fascinated by technology.

Crime is part of the human condition and technology crime is simply using technology to do things the state has legislated against.

What is new are the numbers. The internet and computer technology amplifies everything. Pre-internet what was once a wave is now a tidal wave

So what is happening?

Criminals have focussed on technology for the easy money.

To support this a criminal economy has developed

While the fertile uplands of Silicon Valley developed technology Silicon Hell was spawning crime gangs coming up with ways to subvert it.

Creative and innovative

Criminals are early adopters of technology

Criminals see the potential to make money by subverting technology very quickly

They see need and work quickly to cater to it

They are great technological innovators

How is it done?

The dark side of the internet has built a mirror of the light side that uses the same methods

Silicon Hell is highly specialised

It uses some of the top people.

People work for it without being aware

Where is Silicon Hell

Silicon Hell is now spread all around the world from Russia to Brazil from China to West Africa.

Criminal activities exist in every country in the world – the UK is no exception

Computer criminals have their own cloud.

The internet the new university of crime

Guides exist to teach you to become a hacker

Videos showing you what to do are on Youtube

A lucrative criminal sideline beckons.

The crime emporium

The value is in the data – we are in the information age

The theft of data is at the heart of computer crime

All data has a price

And.. Even the criminals wipe their drives..do you?