Hackers Find Backers Computer crime is now a game for professionals. Are companies prepared to respond? John McPartlin, CFO Magazine January 01, 2006 Large organizations should prepare themselves for more-clever and more-targeted attacks against their security infrastructures this year. That's the one thing law-enforcement officials, security experts, and industry executives agree on. Everything else — from the proper way to assess damages after a security breach to whether or not companies should report these breaches to the Federal Bureau of Investigation — seems to be up for debate. "We are currently seeing attacks like we have never seen before," says Bruce Helman, unit chief overseeing technology issues for the FBI's Counterintelligence division. "Many are coming from Eastern Europe and are more sophisticated and more difficult to detect." Increasingly, Helman says, these attacks are perpetrated for money rather than hacker thrills and boasting rights as was the case in years past. Hacker groups have added financial savvy to their technical skills and have become masters of blackmail, and of negotiating with companies to extort the maximum amount of cash from them.

Oh, that's just great! Not only do we have to contend with people who have nothing better to do than to ruin your day, but now it's international crime! As far as I'm concerned, this is a form of terrorism, and we should respond as we do to any terrorism. Cheri

I agree with you completely Cheri.