December 12, 2005

FUDWatch - US Treasury builds up for intervention in Internet Governance?

The US treasury has apparently launched an attack on Internet governance with a FUD claim:

RIYADH (Reuters) - Global cybercrime generated a higher turnover than drug trafficking in 2004 and is set to grow even further with the wider use of technology in developing countries, a top expert said on Monday. No country is immune from cybercrime, which includes corporate espionage, child pornography, stock manipulation, extortion and piracy, said Valerie McNiven, who advises the U.S. Treasury on cybercrime.
"Last year was the first year that proceeds from cybercrime were greater than proceeds from the sale of illegal drugs, and that was, I believe, over $105 billion," McNiven told Reuters. Cybercrime is moving at such a high speed that law enforcement cannot catch up with it."

For example, Web sites used by fraudsters for "phishing" -- the practice of tricking computer users into revealing their bank details and other personal data -- only stayed on the Internet for a maximum of 48 hours, she said.

Lumping in "corporate espionage, child pornography, stock manipulation, extortion and piracy" with cybercrime is like saying that roads and cars are responsible for bank robberies, because most bank robberies use a getaway vehicle. The US Treasury needs to be told that if they make stupid statements then their reputation is likely to suffer. I suppose they'll be blaming the rise in their T-bills interest on cybercriminals next.

Posted by iang at December 12, 2005 09:24 AM | TrackBack
Comments

The death roll spiral banks are caught in via its negative sale to clients to throw off the scandal of poorly designed systems for online commerce is being reinforced by the regulators of same institutions. So the world cannot transact without robbery happens and a twist of child porno and stock scams thrown in for good measure. So the basis for a legal informational entity needs to be adjusted to reconcile the difference between the physical entity and the society’s ability to criminalize its activity. This bright shining moment of regulators and their minion of regulated entities (banks) blaming the consumer for the ills of the system presents an opportunity to usurp the lot from their lofty pedestal. The private currency for private entities transacted outside the regulatory scope of revue to avoid the politically driven arbitrary criminalization of activity. The reality is how much child porno is there around probably not much while scary it is a social ill of low impact. Stock scams and manipulations can easily be solved via a real time accounting system transparent to all stakeholders at equal levels would removed it. Monetary transactional fraud can also be solved for that matter simply using alternative systems rather than the flawed traditional array of banking scenarios. So the world is ripe for the unregulated private community that wishes to transact The people involved in child porno will always find a means of transacting and any morality based law enforcement is a waste of time just like drugs. The physical world of laws also tends to allocate resources where they can garner the most rewards like speeding ticket on highways and parking tickets. The volume of revenue earned determines the level of enforcement applied. So the evils of child porno will never be addressed online or off because the monetary benefit to the enforcement officials is insignificant. The stock manipulation game in the non-online world is going full guns and many of the people that get lured into scam deals never even look at the internet. People are sold stock and influenced by rumors and lies. People do not buy stock and make rational choices as to what a reasonable expectation might be. So the monetary transfer fraud has been heaped up with child porno and stock fraud for no good reason. The stock fraud and child porno are social ills of greed and lust. The monetary fraud is one that has at its heart a lackluster design supported by monopolies of legislation. The monetary fraud should be addressed but they can only point fingers and yell at the users and heap the users with child porno peoples and stock manipulators.

Posted by: Jim Nesfield at December 12, 2005 10:34 AM

> "Last year was the first year that proceeds from cybercrime were
> greater than proceeds from the sale of illegal drugs, and that was, I
> believe, over $105 billion,"

Preposterous. That is simply ridiculous. What planet is she living on?

> lumping corporate espionage, child pornography, stock manipulation,
> extortion and piracy with cybercrime is like saying that roads and
> cars are responsible for bank robberies, because most bank robberies
> use a getaway vehicle.


And furthermore, it is time to require user licenses and strong authentication for telephones, it has been far too easy for criminals to use phones.

Same for the postal mail.

Posted by: Todd at December 13, 2005 05:06 AM

Rumour has it that she was misreported in some sense by the press. It's not clear what the facts are, but it looks like the same old: "we won't do you badly ... oops, what did you expect, we're the press!"

Posted by: Iang at December 13, 2005 05:11 AM
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