Chapter Four

Personal, Legal, Ethical, and Organizational Issues

A previous post on Big Brother Big Business discussed privacy issues. Chapter Four describes other risks associated with information technologies. Coincidentally, this week CNN is running a series on the ecosystem of cybercrime. Here is a link to the first installment (hackers). I'll follow up later with more info.

Follow-up: The second installment is "How They've Hacked You" (link to article). The topics include things we've covered in class, such as phishing, malware, denial of service attacks, and keyloggers. Read the article for information about spear phishing, SQL injection, backdoor exploitation, and brute force entry. The article is a little unnerving because it points out the vulnerability of our passwords and credit card information.

The third installment is titled "The Cyber Mafia Has Already Hacked You" (organized cybercrime article). This article points out that most large corporations and credit card companies have already been compromised. The most sophisticated mafia cybercrime rings originate in Russia. The Russian Business Network, founded by former spies, is one of many mafia organizations which are relentless in their quest to steal money using the Internet.

Other installments (cyber cold war and low-tech scams) are worth reading as well.