14 February 2007

Identity theft rises from the Third World

Eleanor Dallaway

Cybercrime is being conducted in under developed countries due to a lack of law enforcement, according to Bruce Schneier speaking at RSA.

“Cybercriminals are using countries with poor law enforcement to commit their crimes, and therefore identity theft and other similar crimes are on the rise. This is how they make their money” said Schneier, CTO of BT Counterpane, speaking at a BT Counterpane event at RSA, in San Francisco last week. Less aggressive legal penalties are attracting organized gangs away from the west to a crime which they consider to be relatively safe with little consequence.

Paul Stitch, CEO of BT Counterpane declared cyber crime as a “non-event”. Schneier agreed it is now so common that it is no longer newsworthy.

Schneier predicted more consolidation in the IT security industry for 2007 as he declared “everybody’s ride is being picked up”. BT acquired Counterpane in October 2006 for little under $40m as part of its strategy to expand and develop their professional services capabilities.

“Security is key and fundamental to what we do, that’s why we bought in Counterpane” said Ray Stanton, global head of business continuity, security and governance practice for BT global services. “It’s a great fit and shortly after the union with Counterpane, a $30m deal was signed in Asia – without the new partnership that would not have happened. They are a complementary service”, declared Stanton. “Joining with Counterpane was a great investment in security”.

Doug Howard, COO at BT Counterpane added “Security is not just a business advantage necessity. It should be part of a company’s DNA, as crucial as human resources. If you don’t invest in it, you will fail”.

Threats are becoming more targeted, Schneier insisted, explaining “We are seeing many more targeted attacks, especially in phishing”, which the CTO explained was resulting in a rise in identity theft.

“Criminals are beginning to attack applications now, as opposed to the operating system”, spoke Schneier. “The recent example of the vulnerabilities discovered in [Adobe] PDF Reader highlights this."

“We have a duty of care to help educate people about security. We’re helping the smaller people to educate the smaller organisations and the entire community. When the large company phishing attacks were stopped, they hit the smaller companies instead” said Stanton.

“If the government won’t step in for security, we’re just going to have to do it ourselves”, concluded Schneier.

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