Cyber-fraud now bigger than the drug dealing!

[DereX888]

Cyber-crime Yields More Cash than Drugs
11.28.05

By Souhail Karam, Reuters

RIYADH—Global cyber-crime 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.

"Last year was the first year that proceeds from cyber-crime were greater than proceeds from the sale of illegal drugs, and that was, I believe, over $105 billion," McNiven told Reuters.

"Cyber-crime is moving at such a high speed that law enforcement cannot catch up with it."

Asked if there was evidence of links between the funding of terrorism and cyber-crime, McNiven said: "There is evidence of links between them. But what's more important is our refusal or failure to create secure systems, we can do it but it's an issue of costs."

Perhaps it is thanks to Microsoft's dominance, combined with its irresponsible software patching behaviour.
I dont know whom, some Senate federal communication's committee or something like this, but someone should force the Redmond giant to either disable/remove the unsecure crap from their Windows (activex and entire Internet Explorer) at once, through the windows update, and not limited to latest windows versions, but available for all windows since Win95 an up, or Microsoft should be treated in same manner as manufacturers of unsafe cars. It is ridiculus that one of the most important pilars of modern life - the computer Operating System software makers - that they can get away with any 'manufacturing defects' simply by writing in EULA that they are not responsible for anything. Perhaps we should allow car makers to attach same EULA to every keys of the cars they sell us, and from now on car manufacturers should also be excluded from any safety recalls etc etc?
Why i.e. Ford must be responsible for its products, and it can be sued if its product proves to be unsafe, but any software maker can just tell you "F*ck off, read my EULA and shut up"?
Ridiculus.
Yet another failure of the democracy, clearly showing how the big money can buy any laws
We have entire branches with thousand of public service people in FBI working on protecting big movie production companies from Joe Schmoe to not let him download some crappy movie, yet no one is enforcing safety and security of general public.
How did it come to this!



entire story:
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1895,1893610,00.asp

[GullyFoyle]

There was a report last year or the year before that drug dealing was so prevalent if you started convicting big name narco trafficers the world wide banking system would collapse. That was part of the BCCI scandal.



http://observer.guardian.co.uk/drugs/story/0,11908,686664,00.html

Regardless of legal status, the drugs industry remains near the peaks of high finance. The extent to which these funds prop up world stock markets will always be unknown, but in their actions alone, the drugs industrialists have long shown themselves to be Class A capitalists.

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2005/2/26/173511/509

$500 billion to $1 trillion is laundered annually, in the United States, according to the Dept. of Justice. I would guess that this is a conservative estimate. What portion of that is from drugs is unknown, I am going to go with half. So let's say $250 to $500 Billion of drug money is laundered anually in the U.S. - although this is clearly an educated guess.

According to Catherine Fitts (I will address her in a moment), the portion of the Gross National Product coming from Narco Dollars is $150 Billion in the U.S. and $400 Billion Globally. I would guess that this is an even more conservative estimate (she guessed that 20% of the laundered money is from drugs, to be conservative.) Our GDP in 2003 was 11 Trillion Dollars, which would mean that drugs account for 1.35% of our economy a year. I am not sure how comparable these two figures are, however, to be honest, and how important they are.

http://www.ratical.org/co-globalize/solariRising.html

OK, that is what a handful of kids can do. Let’s look at all the organized crime profits, narcotics trafficking and everything else. If the Department of Justice is correct about $500 billion to $1 trillion of annual money laundering in the U.S., then about $20 billion to $40 billion is a reasonable estimate for what should move annually through the Philadelphia Federal Reserve district.

Assuming a 20-percent margin for organized-crime profits and a 20-times multiple on the stock of the companies being used to launder the money, the stock market value that could potentially be "addicted" to organized crime profits flowing through the Philadelphia area from $20 billion to $40 billion in narco- and organized-crime revenues could be as much as $160 billion. If you add all the things you could do with debt and other ways to increase the multiples, you could get that even higher, say $250 billion.

Imagine what would happen if all these teenagers in the Philadelphia area stopped taking and dealing drugs? Now do you understand what Philadelphia mothers and dads are up against when they try and make sure their children are safe?

http://www.narconews.com/narcodollars1.html

Anyway a little bit of research not only proves this a fraudulent claim but that drug money is far more ingrained into the system than cybercrime money is. Add to that drug money includes various other crimes from money laundering to murder you see that the cost to the system is quite a bit more substantial.

[DereX888]

I wish the govt. had smartened up and finally legalized drugs. Even assuming that only 1/10th of the above dollar numbers are correct, income from drug-taxes would add nice budget revenue

why not add some sort of EULA to it as well - "you can use drugs legally, pay taxes, but you have no rights to demand care from any private or public helthcare systems to look after you once you get sick from drug use"


EDIT:
thx for the links GullyFoyle, some eye-opening material there!